Colorado had the nation’s highest rate of layoffs and job separations in August – By Tamara Chuang (Colorado Sun) / Oct 28 2021
Though many employers blamed a labor shortage for lack of workers, the state’s rank in job cuts, quitters and hiring rates was among the highest in the nation, says a new JOLTS report.
As the summer wound down and large numbers of Coloradans on pandemic unemployment applied for new jobs, another group of workers lost theirs — at the highest rates nationwide.
New federal labor data showing how states fared put Colorado at the top of the list of states with the highest rates of layoffs and job separations for August. That includes people who quit their jobs, were fired, ended their seasonal gig, retired, transferred to other locations or died.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, a two-decades old monthly report on regional and national data trends from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, began carving out individual state data for the first time this month. It tracks how many people lost their jobs or were hired compared to all nonfarm workers.
But it’s a bit of a head scratcher as to why Colorado ranked so high for layoffs and job cuts in August, a time when companies faced staffing shortages that had some employers raising wages or turning away customers, while customers complained about poor service or long lines for emissions testing. The number of people making first-time unemployment claims had also been dropping.
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