Last week the Bureau of Labor released their updated employment statistics...and the news was not great. The jobless rate jumped to over 14.5% - the highest level since the Great Depression in the early 1930's.
The map above was created in ArcGIS Online utilizing the Bureau of Labor updated stats. Blue indicates an unemployment level over 7%.
Colorado
On a local level, Colorado reported 142,578 unemployed people for the month of March. This puts the unemployment rate at 4.5%, which is equal to the national average. Just 2 months ago, Colorado's unemployment rate was at 2.5%. The map below shows Colorado's unemployment levels at a county level . Dark orange equates to an unemployment rate of over 7% while dark blue indicates an unemployment rate of under 3%.
The Colorado county reporting the lowest unemployment rate is Summit County at 2.7%. The Colorado county reporting the highest unemployment rate is Huerfano County in southern Colorado at 12.1%. This is almost 3 times the national unemployment average.
ESRI makes it easy to add this data into an ArcGIS Online map by searching "Esri_Demographics" or "Bureau of Labor". The layer displayed above comes complete with custom symbology, labels and expressions. Follow this link to add the Bureau of Labor's updated data through ESRI's Living Atlas: LINK
Unemployment Dashboard
Using similar data, ESRI also provides a free dashboard displaying applicable charts and graphs. The dashboard features state level unemployment insurance weekly claims data from the US Department of Labor, Employment, and Training.
Colorado has an initial claims index of 112, which denotes a 12% increase in claims from the previous week. On a similar note, Colorado is reporting a claims % employment index of 121. Using this index, while 100 indicates the national average, an index of 121 exhibits 21% higher employment claims than the national mean. The dashboard also displays useful information like total claims and bi-weekly claim differences.
The dashboard can be configured to display data for any U.S. state.
The U.S. economy and unemployment rates continue to look stark as more than 33 million Americans have filed for unemployment as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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