VOLUME 38 • NUMBER 41 • SEPTEMBER 3, 2020
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E MPLOYEE M P LABORER L O Y E R S
BREADWINNER
WORKER JOB HOLDER
Labor Day is a reminder that the way we work is changing BY FREDA MIKLIN GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER
The first Labor Day, an annual tribute “to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country,” was celebrated on a Tuesday, September 5, 1882. Two years later, President Grover Cleve-
land signed a law making it a national holiday to be celebrated each year on the first Monday in September. Accelerating technological changes over the past few decades, combined with the differences in how people are working as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, have led to many questions about whether our country’s labor
force of tomorrow will much resemble the ones we have known in the past. According to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE), the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.4 percent in July, down from 10.6 percent in June, while the national seasonally adjusted rate was 10.2 percent in July, down from
11.1 percent in June. Colorado’s total labor force was 3,079,600 in July, down 97,500 from June, even though the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate went down. Since May, our state has recovered “134,200 of the 342,300 nonfarm payroll jobs lost between February and April. That translates to a job recovery rate of 39.2 percent,
which lags the U.S. rate of 41.9 percent.” Comparing July 2019 to July 2020, “nonfarm payroll jobs have decreased 186,200, with losses totaling 146,900 in the private sector and 39,300 in government. The largest private sector job losses were in leisure and
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