Colorado Unemployment: More Than 79,000 Filed For Benefits Last Week

DENVER (AP) - More than 79,000 people filed for unemployment benefits in Colorado last week, just over half of them gig and self-employed workers, the state labor department said Thursday. The number of initial filings last week was up over the 67,334 applications filed during the week that ended April 18.

Last week, the state began paying an extra $600 a week to all people approved for and receiving unemployment payments under the federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program.

Nationally, roughly 30.3 million people, more than one in six American workers, have now filed for jobless aid in the six weeks across the country.

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