Colorado unemployment rate edges up to 7.8% in July

Colorado employers cut 10,900 jobs in July, a smaller-than-usual decline for the month, while the unemployment rate rose two-tenths of a percentage point to 7.8 percent, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment said Friday.

“Months without a significant increase in unemployment and a slight improvement in over-the-year wage and salary losses may be an indication the economy is stabilizing,” Donald Mares, the labor department’s executive director, said in a statement.

A year ago, Colorado’s unemployment rate was 4.9 percent, the Denver Business Journal reports.

Nonfarm wage and salary employment fell by 10,900 to 2,263,600, a decrease that officials characterized as “considerably smaller than normal for July.”

Typical July cutbacks occurred in education-related industries, with seasonal declines leading to an 18,000 drop in government and a 1,600 decrease in education and health services jobs.

Click here for the Denver Business Journal story.