According to a report issued this week by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, the unemployment rate for Archuleta County dropped from 3.5 in August to 2.8 percent in September.
However, while the number of unemployed people fell from 221 to 177 over the month, the number of employed people also fell — from 6,146 to 6,074 — meaning the overall workforce in Pagosa Country shrank from 6,367 to 6,251, or 1.8 percent, over the month.
Nonetheless, the picture is quite a bit better than last year, when the September 2014 unemployment rate in the county was 4.2 percent, there were only 5,733 people with jobs and 251 people claimed unemployment.
In addition, the local employment situation is still better than most other areas of the state. Saguache County, for example, had the highest unemployment rate for the month with 6.2 percent. On the other hand, Dolores County had the lowest with 1.6 percent.
The state’s unemployment rate decreased two-tenths of a percentage point in September to 4.0 percent. The number of people actively participating in the labor force decreased 1,300 over the month to 2,805,200 and the number of people reporting themselves as employed increased 5,500 to 2,693,800. The increase in total employment combined with the decrease in labor force caused the number of unemployed to decrease 6,800 and the unemployment rate to decline to 4.0 percent.
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