Colorado employers added 5,100 non-farm jobs to their payrolls in December, a sizable jump from the previous month when employers added 1,800 jobs.
December ended with a record year for the number of Coloradans in the labor force.
But despite the jobs added in December, the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 3.1 percent from the previous month when it was 2.9 percent, according to the latest data from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
The monthly gain of 5,100 non-farm payroll jobs was higher than the state's 12-month average gain of 3,817 jobs, according to the CDLE data. And the gains were higher than the the previous four months when the average gain was 4,800 jobs, which had been the best four-month average since 2016, said Ryan Gedney, the state's senior economist.
Breaking down the numbers, the private sector added 4,300 jobs in December and the government increased by 800 jobs.
Read the story at the Denver Business Journal.
