Construction slip doesn't hurt unemployment rate
Saturday, March 30, 2002
Steamboat Springs — The construction slowdown hasn't fueled a significant increase in unemployment in Routt County. Unemployment here in February was just 2.2 percent, the lowest of any county in the state.
Pat Bonny of the local office of the Colorado Workforce Center said the latest stats took her by surprise.
"That just astounds me," Bonny said. "I kept looking and looking (at the list of Colorado counties).
"This is amazing, especially since our workforce increased by 200."
In spite of the arrival of 200 foreign workers for the ski season, most of them Australians, Routt County's unemployment rose by just one-tenth of one percent last month, Bonny said.
A year ago, Routt County's unemployment rate was just 1.6 percent, meaning the county effectively had full employment, Bonny said.
The difference between last winter and this winter is that in 2001, there were tons of job openings posted for housekeepers and other seasonal resort workers. That's not the case this winter, Bonny said.
It's possible the construction slowdown in Steamboat is having a greater impact on Moffat County than it is on Routt February's unemployment rate in the neighboring county to the west was 8.1 percent.
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