Colorado’s regular and pandemic unemployment claims increased for the seventh consecutive week, breaking highs set in May and June, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment report released Thursday.

There were 19,024 initial regular unemployment claims made in the week ending Dec. 5. That is an increase of nearly 2,000 from the previous week and more than 2 1/2 times as high as the previous month.

The last time Colorado saw weekly initial claims higher than 19,000 was May 9, making for a seven-month high.

Colorado’s pandemic unemployment claims fared even worse this week, reaching 17,232 initial claims during the week ending Dec. 5.

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That is an increase of 3,000 from the previous week and nearly seven times the amount of claims from the previous month.

Weekly initial claims for pandemic unemployment have only ever surpassed 17,000 twice before, in the weeks ending June 13 and April 25 — the first week pandemic unemployment was offered in Colorado.

That makes this week’s pandemic unemployment claims the third-highest since the pandemic began.

With nearly two months of week-over-week claim increases, Colorado is facing one of the worst unemployment recoveries in the county.

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For the week of Nov. 30, Colorado had the fourth-highest unemployment increase in the U.S., topped only by Kansas, New Mexico and Illinois, according to a WalletHub study.

Colorado has paid $6.4 billion in unemployment claims since March, including $2.34 billion in regular unemployment and $891.1 million in pandemic unemployment.

Accommodation and food service workers dominated unemployment claims for the week ending Nov. 21, accounting for 43.5% of initial claims.

They were followed by health care and social assistance workers, making up 7.3% of initial claims.