Colorado Unemployment Claims Down From Previous Week

DENVER (CBS4) -- Fewer Coloradans filed for unemployment benefits last week. More than 13,000 new claims were filed. That's down about 1,000 claims from the week before.

Since March 29, more than 617,000 Coloradans have asked for assistance. The state labor department reports it has paid more than $3 billion in unemployment benefits since the pandemic started.

Nationally, 1.3 million people applied for unemployment benefits during the week ending July 4, according to the Labor Department. The number of claims has declined every week since peaking in March when many businesses closed temporarily because of the coronavirus pandemic.