Colorado Springs seeing low unemployment numbers despite high Federal Reserve interest rates
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)-- New numbers show Colorado Springs is slightly higher than the state unemployment rate. The Colorado Springs unemployment rate stands at 3.8 percent compared to the state rate of 3.6 percent.
It's somewhat of an anomaly because of the military presence, unemployment numbers typically remain low here.
There are currently 20,000 open jobs in El Paso and Teller County and data shows that 13,000 people in the Pikes Peak Region are unemployed and applying for work.
The Pikes Peak Workforce Center works to help people find jobs. Workforce Center officials say people who are unemployed are focusing on specific industries.
Those are health care, professional services, administrative, manufacturing, retail, and hospitality.
"What people are looking for when looking for a job is a quality job, a quality job is not just based on wages, it's based on the company culture, It's based on the professional development," said the CEO of Pikes Peak Workforce Center, Tracy Marques
Joe Craig is the Director of Economics at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. He says the pandemic shifted the way people view work.
"People have started to want more of a work-life balance which means there are less people really committed to working the jobs no matter what."
Craig thinks people are more interested in remote work and part-time jobs. The shift is putting pressure on employers to retain permanent workers and be flexible.
"We need to look as a community how do we rescale, upscale and next-scale our workers to fill those jobs or today and tomorrow," added Craig.
The Pikes Peak Workforce Center in Colorado Springs is available to help job seekers build a resume. Even though Colorado Springs is lagging behind the state, our unemployment numbers are still low. Craig says if the economy takes a downhill turn workers in Colorado Springs are in a good position compared to other cities across the country.