DENVER — More than 46,000 people filed for unemployment payments in Colorado last week as coronavirus-related job losses continued, with workers in the hospitality and food industries accounting for over a quarter of those new claims, the state labor department said Thursday.
The other four top fields where workers had lost jobs were health care and social services, services like nail and hair salons and barbers, arts, entertainment and recreation and retail trade.
Over the last three weeks, 127,393 unemployment claims have been filed, about 25,000 more than were filed in all of 2019. Last week, Colorado paid $29.8 million in unemployment benefits, more than the average of $19 million in benefits paid out each week during the height of the Great Recession.
Nationally, more than one in 10 workers have lost their jobs in just the past three weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak.
In other developments:
— Authorities believe at least three reports of police impersonators stopping drivers recently are not true, The Denver Post reported. One woman admitted to making up a story about being stopped in Aurora to try to get her employer to give her documents showing she was an essential worker, according to 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler’s office.