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Steamboat Springs — Architects, accountants, managers and other middle-class workers are increasingly swelling Routt County's unemployment and social services lines, as figures released Tuesday put Colorado on the cusp of qualifying for an emergency extension of unemployment benefits.

Statewide, unemployment increased from 5.8 percent in November to 6.1 percent - a five-year high - in December. Routt County's unemployment actually fell 0.5 percent in December to 3.9, but experts attributed that to usual ski season gains in seasonal employment. Applications for food stamps, home heating assistance and unemployment are increasing in the county.

December's figures put the state on the verge of qualifying for Emergency Unemployment Compensation legislation, which provides as many as 13 additional weeks of benefits for states that reach a total unemployment rate greater than 6 percent. Colorado does not qualify, however, because the provision is based on a three-month average.

Joe Winter, a senior economist with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, said that with a three-month unemployment average of 5.87 percent, any upward movement in January or in the department's revision of its 2008 figures will likely trigger the emergency extension.

Routt was one of 23 Colorado counties that saw a decrease in unemployment, which Winter attributed to "a natural consequence of economic cycles" related to ski season and the annual influx of seasonal workers in resort communities. Steamboat Springs' available work force grew from 15,871 in November to 17,146 in December.

"Resort areas and areas where there's a lot of natural gas exploration activity as there has been in the northwest part of the state puts you in a very different kettle of fish," Winter said.

Needs increasing

Meanwhile, employment specialists at the Colorado Workforce Center in Steamboat said full-time residents in a variety of fields are feeling the pain of the national recession.

"We're seeing more qualified people versus your entry-level jobs," said Jackie Mitchell, who said unemployment inquiries are definitely increasing.

Mitchell noted in particular careers related to the building industry, such as architecture. She said that the center is posting a total of 27 jobs while it normally has more than 150 to advertise.

Routt County Human Services Director Vickie Clark is seeing a similar trend. Nine hundred people of all walks of life visited or called department offices in November, up from 550 in August.

"We're just getting an increase in the number of all public assistance programs," Clark said. "We're seeing people come in here who have never had to ask for help before."

Clark said 156 people were receiving food stamps in November, up from 133 in November 2007. A program that helps people with their heating costs between October and April has received 208 applications this year, up from 146 from the same date last year. Thirty-three people received child care assistance in November, up from 16 in November 2007.

The demand has created a backlog, Clark said, and has tripled the time it takes to process applications, which is normally a week to 10 days.

"It's been a challenge believe me," Clark said. "We definitely are feeling it."

Winter attributed the growth in the unemployed middle class to the global credit crunch, which has a much larger effect on industries such as construction and manufacturing than service industry jobs.

"People at a professional level need to have professional-level demands to be employed," he said. "When you have a business stop of the level we're seeing nationwide, that's going to filter out to other areas."

The state added 10,200 leisure and hospitality jobs in December, because of the ski industry, but lost heavily in other sectors including professional and business services (7,300 jobs), construction (4,400 jobs), government (1,400 jobs) and manufacturing (1,000 jobs), according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

Nationally, all 50 states and the District of Columbia reported over-the-month and over-the-year increases in unemployment. In December, the highest unemployment rates were in the West and Midwest and the lowest were in the Northeast and South, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.