Colorado Springs unemployment hits 4 year high

But Republicans will still vote for a warmonger:

The Colorado Springs area unemployment rate surged to a 4½-year high of 6 percent in June as weak job growth failed to provide enough opportunities for the growing number of people seeking work, the Colorado Labor and Employment Department reported Friday.

The area's jobless rate, which is adjusted for seasonal changes, was up from 5.7 percent in May and has increased in nine of the past 12 months. A year ago, 4.1 percent of the area's residents were out of work. The Springs area unemployment rate is now the highest since January 2004.

The local unemployment rate has increased sharply in the past year because the number of people in the job market has grown by nearly 6,200 while the number of people working has remained flat. As a result, the number of residents out of work has jumped by nearly 50 percent during the past year to 19,320, the highest monthly total in five years and the second-highest ever.

"The slowdown in the national economy is really dragging down the local economy," said Fred Crowley, senior economist for the Southern Colorado Economic Forum. "This reflects the employment losses in the core of our local economy - the primary jobs that bring income from outside the area into our economy. Those losses haven't been replaced and will continue to be felt in the rest of the local economy over the next year or so."

Primary jobs losses in the area have come mostly from the evaporation of the hightech industry and customer support and calling centers.

The numbers don't reflect the job cuts planned next year by Hewlett-Packard Company.

That's another couple thousand in the air at HP.