Paid leave and a higher unemployment insurance expense, as well as higher minimum wages are among policies that take effect Jan. 1.
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment
Posted inEconomy
What’s Working: Waiting for unemployment benefits in Colorado? It may now take up to 16 weeks
More than 8,000 Coloradans have waited seven or more weeks for their jobless benefits. Plus: Rising unemployment, jobs and more!
Posted inEconomy
What’s Working: Behind the new fee many Colorado workers and employers will see in 2023
The state’s paid family leave program starts in January but not in the way you might expect. Plus: Readers share their job worries, Colorado jobs, and more!
Posted inEconomy
What’s Working: Thanksgiving meal inflation is higher in Colorado than U.S.
Plus: Unemployment rate increases to 3.6% but troubled tech sector isn’t necessarily to blame, new businesses on the rise, more!
Posted inNews
What’s behind next year’s 9% minimum wage increase in Denver and Colorado
At The Preservery, a neighborhood eatery in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood, the cost of food and other expenses has gone up at least 20% since the pandemic. Rent is higher. There are also additional costs to boost job openings online, which has “for sure” added 60% to recruitment expenses, said co-owner Whitney Ariss. But faced with […]
Posted inBusiness, Economy, News
Colorado’s $1 billion unemployment loan on track to be paid off by November, preventing higher tax on employers
Colorado has paid back 87% of the $1 billion it borrowed from the federal government to provide out-of-work Coloradans unemployment benefits during the pandemic. As of this week, the outstanding balance was $133.1 million. There’s still a way to go to get the depleted unemployment insurance trust fund healthy again. But with Colorado’s strong job […]
Posted inBusiness, Economy, News
Coloradans face 10-12 week wait for unemployment pay to start as state deals with pandemic backlog
What’s Working: A version of this story first appeared in a segment of our weekly What’s Working column on July 16, 2022. Additional details are included in this story. Read the full column. >> Sign up for the newsletter It’s now taking 10 to 12 weeks for Coloradans to get new unemployment claims processed by […]
Posted inBusiness, Economy, News
What’s Working: Colorado is offering up to $50,000 to tap into an old-timey resource — apprenticeships
As the challenge continues for employers to fill job openings — and workers try to get a job offer — there’s been a big push by the state of Colorado to tap into an old-timey resource: apprenticeships. But first, in local economic news, Colorado’s February unemployment rate came in at 4%, which is slightly lower […]
Posted inBusiness, Economy, News
Colorado has recovered 98% of jobs lost in pandemic, as unemployment rate drops to 4.1%
Colorado’s economic recovery is going better than expected state labor officials said Monday, reporting that 98% of jobs lost when COVID struck have returned. However, January’s 4.1% unemployment rate, the lowest since the pandemic began, is still higher than the 2.8% in February 2020, the month before the first COVID-19 cases in Colorado were confirmed. […]
Posted inBusiness, Crime and Courts, News
Colorado task force refers 17 cases of unemployment fraud to prosecutors
A state task force investigating suspicious jobless claims has now referred 17 cases for criminal prosecution, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office said Friday. The AG’s office, which is part of the Colorado Unemployment Fraud Task Force, said the total loss in unemployment fraud “exceeds $300,000.” “These are complex cases that take time to develop, and […]