The Colorado Springs-area unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent in September, the lowest this year, as job losses appear to have leveled off in recent months, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment reported today. More than 22,000 people were out of work last month.

The September rate is the lowest since December 2008 and was down from a revised 7.8 percent in August and July’s 8.2 percent — the area’s highest jobless levels this decade. The area’s unemployment rate in September 2008 was 5.9 percent.

The department also reported that area payrolls last month were down 10,000 — or 3.9 percent — from a year earlier. That is a smaller decline than each of the previous four months. While the September total was down from a year ago, it also was up 600 from August — the biggest month-to-month increase in nearly two years and just the second such gain since October 2008. Much of the September improvement came in the professional and business services sector.

The unemployment rate is calculated from a survey of residents and reflects the number of people unsuccessfully seeking work. Payroll  numbers come from a survey of businesses and do not include the self-employed. Both sets of data are adjusted for seasonal changes.

“This, and the fact that local employment numbers are no longer deteriorating ,is more affirmation and evidence that the local recession is over and has been for about six months. Most of the other local economic indicators are moving upward,” said Fred Crowley, senior economist for the Southern Colorado Economic Forum. “The recovery won’t be rapid, however, because the local economy no longer has much of a manufacturing base that can be recalled from layoff.”

The forum’s Business Conditions Index, which tracks eight local economic indicators as well as some regional and national data, is up between 12 percent and 15 percent from its low point at the end of last year.

David Bamberger of Bamberger & Associates, a local economic research and consulting firm, said he was encouraged by the latest job market numbers, but noted that the size of the local labor market has declined in the past year as residents have left the job market. He added that “no one would argue that the local economy has hit bottom. But we are at the bottom of a big hole and have a long way to go to get where we were at two years ago.”

The statewide unemployment rate also fell for a second consecutive month to an 8-month low of 7 percent, while the number of people holding payroll jobs fell by 4.8 percent, or 115,000 from a year earlier.—Contact the writer at 636-0234

Conductor Lawrence Leighton Smith Photo by