While the continued slide of new jobless claims stands as encouraging news, the 5,825 new regular claims filed for the week ending April 24 far outstrips the highest week of new filings in 2019, according to data released Thursday by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

It’s the ninth week in a row new regular unemployment claims have fallen, this time 14% fewer than the week’s previous total of 6,718.

The new mark stands as the lowest weekly total for all of 2020 and 2021. By way of contrast, the highest week of new payroll filings for 2019 was 3,162.

New claims filed by self-employed, contract or “gig” workers fell to 830 for the week ending April 24, down from the previous week’s 1,310.

Those workers are covered by the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.

Biggest drop for new Colorado jobless claims in 2021

The number of new claims for payroll and PUA-eligible workers was 6,655, 17% less than the total new employment claims filed the week of April 17.

March’s unemployment rate stood at 6.4%, unchanged from February. It was at 6.6% in January.

The state’s unemployment rate was 4.7% in March 2020, just as the pandemic was triggering widespread business restrictions. Colorado’s unemployment rate remains above the national rate of 6%.

Unemployed Coloradans filed 201,835 continued claims as of the week ended April 17. That covers all payroll, contract and self-employed workers.

“CDLE estimates those continued claims were filed by approximately 166,573 individuals,” according to a release.

The high mark was set the week of Feb. 20, when more than 385,000 continued claims were filed. That number dropped after CDLE implemented the ID.ME software to verify identities.

This week marks a year since 79,290 new unemployment claims were filed for the week ending April 25, 2020.

CDLE reports 1,190,197 total claims have been filed since March 2020, and that $8.99 billion in claims have been paid.