Colorado jobs spring up in April, though state lags nearly all the rest

After several lackluster months, preliminary data shows that Colorado employers added more jobs in April than they have in the past 12 months. 

More than half of the 7,200 new jobs were in the leisure and hospitality industry, according to the Establishment Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job gains were offset by losses in industries like finance, which include banks and insurance, which shed 1,400 jobs last month. 

But as with any preliminary data, revisions will likely be made as they have been already this year, Ryan Gedney, principal economist at the state Department of Labor and Employment, said during a news conference Friday. In March, the state said 4,700 jobs were lost. After revisions came in, the loss was just 1,700. 

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Analyzing job data each month comes with caveats because it’s based on surveys and estimates. As more data comes in or is revised, that can adjust Colorado’s monthly job numbers up or down. Based on recent revisions, Colorado’s job growth was 0.8% since April 2022, lagging behind the U.S. job growth rate of 2.6%.  

Gedney said some of the decline may be due to data benchmarking issues that undercounted how many jobs Colorado added. But that impacts the job growth rate by only “five-tenths or six-tenths of a percentage point.” 

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Tamara Chuang writes about businesses, technology and the local economy for The Colorado Sun. She also writes the “What’s Working” column, available as a free newsletter at coloradosun.com/getww.