Colorado’s unemployment rate continued on its downward trend after peaking at 4.8% in May 2025.

The state recorded a 3.9% unemployment rate in November, according to estimates from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment released Wednesday, down from 4.1% in September.

The number of unemployed individuals in Colorado fell to 125,900, down by 8,400.

The department did not release labor data from October, after the longest-running federal shutdown in U.S. history paused funding for labor data collection. Data collection of the household survey for November started a day late, CDLE said, and extended the time period to contact households during Thanksgiving festivities.

Colorado’s unemployment rate has long been below, or at, the national average over the last two decades until 2024, when the state’s unemployment rate started climbing faster than the rest of the country.

That was short-lived as Colorado’s rate began to fall and the U.S. unemployment continued to climb. The U.S. unemployment rate rose from 4.4% to 4.6% between September and November.

But the number of individuals employed in Colorado and participating in the state’s labor force is also dropping. Colorado’s labor participation force fell from 67.3% to 67%. It’s the state’s lowest participation rate since October 2020.

The number of people with jobs in Colorado fell to 3,137,000, down by 900.

In the last year, the top performing industries have been private health care and social assistance (12,900 jobs added), food services (6,600) and government (6,300). The largest losses hit administrative, support and waste management (6,500 jobs lost), construction (-2,400) and finance (-2,300).

Boulder and Colorado Springs had the fastest job growth rate between November 2024 and 2025 at 0.2%, followed by Denver at 0.1%.

The City and County of Denver had a 3.8% unemployment rate, Boulder’s was 3.4% and El Paso County was at 3.7%.