The Pueblo area’s unemployment rate fell to a near-record low of 3.5 percent in May.
The rate is a tick higher than the area’s modern-era low of 3.4 percent, set 18 years ago in May 2000, according to preliminary employment estimates released Friday by the state Department of Labor. The state’s current record-keeping began in 1990.
The drop comes as Colorado and the nation also report the lowest jobless rates in decades.
The U.S. jobless rate fell to 3.8 percent last month.
Colorado’s rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 2.8 percent in May.
The number of workers employed full- or part-time in May was 72,810, an increase of more than 600 from the prior month and up about 1,300 from a year earlier. The size of the labor force was 75,460, an increase of 359 from last month and up 697 from a year ago. The number of unemployed was down to 2,650, down about 300 in a month and 150 in a year.