Suspended Publication of Colorado Labor Market Data

In December 2024, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that it is suspending the publication of monthly employment, unemployment, and wage statistics for Colorado due to data quality concerns, beginning with data for January 2025. Colorado is the only state whose data are affected. Select measures of employment and wages will continue to be reported on a quarterly basis, published five months after the end of each quarter.

This decision comes after the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) implemented software system changes in its unemployment insurance program, which disrupted the collection of employment and wage data beginning with data for the third quarter of 2023. The BLS has indicated that it will resume monthly publication of employment, unemployment, and wage data for Colorado when data quality concerns have been resolved. The prospective timeline of this resolution is unknown. In February 2025, the BLS has indicated that some of its data quality concerns have been addressed.

These data are used by many agencies, including Legislative Council Staff (LCS) and the Office of State Planning and Budgeting to prepare quarterly economic and revenue forecasts, and, in some cases, are referenced in statute to determine program benefits or funding amounts. Data quality concerns clouded LCS’s understanding of the Colorado economy in 2024, and are expected to continue to do so for the March 2025 forecast. If data publication is suspended for a prolonged period, then the impact on all subsequent forecasts will quickly become increasingly more disruptive.