Colorado hiring ended the year on a weak note with unemployment drifting higher

The crescendo of robust hiring in the years coming out of the pandemic grew quieter as 2024 wrapped up.

Colorado’s unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4% in December from 4.3% in November with employers adding an estimated 300 nonfarm jobs in the final month of the year, according to an update Monday from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

That meager gain reflected an increase of 1,100 government jobs and the loss of 800 jobs in the private sector.

For the year, the state added an estimated 48,600 nonfarm jobs, with 32,600 coming from the private sector and 16,000 from local, state and federal governments, according to a survey of establishments.

Private sector gains were strongest in educational and health services, which added 12,000 jobs; professional and business services were up by 7,400; trade, transportation and utilities were up by 5,000 jobs, and construction rose by 4,400 positions.

The information supersector, which includes high-tech companies and traditional media, shed 3,800 jobs. Wholesale trade lost 2,700 jobs while administrative services dropped 1,900.

“At this time, the overall economy is expanding at a steady pace, but the United States economy is performing better than Colorado,” said Broomfield economist Gary Horvath in an email.

Colorado’s pace of job growth was 1.6% last year, which is down from a 2% rate in 2023. Aside from the tumult of the pandemic in 2020, the last time the state added jobs at a slower clip was in 2010.