Brought to you by:
Powered by wagescape.com
Pueblo's jobless rate climbs to 6.6% as contractor losses mount
6.6%
Pueblo unemployment rate
vs 4.0% Colorado, 4.1% U.S. (Aug 2026)
~67,100
Pueblo metro employment
down from 68,800 in Nov 2025
90 workers
Mission Foods plant closure
Pueblo tortilla plant closing by Oct 27
67.4%
Colorado labor force participation
down from 68.1% a year earlier
This Month's Takeaways
Pueblo's downturn is concentrated, not diffuse.
Battelle's contract wind-down, Amentum's seven rounds of layoffs in 2025, and now Mission Foods' plant closure trace back to a small number of large employers rather than a broad-based retreat. That concentration matters for recovery planning — the metro's trajectory hinges disproportionately on a handful of named-employer decisions.
Pueblo's jobless rate gap with the state is widening, not closing.
At 6.6% in August against Colorado's 4.0% and the national 4.1%, Pueblo's unemployment rate sits roughly 2.5 points above the state figure — a gap that has persisted even as Colorado's own labor market has softened through 2026. That divergence is consistent with Pueblo bearing metro-specific shocks (contractor and manufacturing losses) on top of statewide headwinds.
Manufacturing pay is falling locally while holding nationally.
Advertised manufacturing production and assembler pay in Pueblo is down moderately even as the national figure holds flat and sits well above Pueblo's level — $44,398 metro versus $39,520 national, an unusual reversal from typical cost-of-living patterns. That may reflect softening local demand for manufacturing labor following plant-level job losses rather than a national industry trend reaching Pueblo.
Healthcare remains the metro's steadiest pillar.
CNA/home health aide advertised pay is up moderately and registered nurse pay is up moderately in Pueblo, consistent with the statewide pattern of education and health services projected to lead 2026 job growth. For a metro absorbing manufacturing and contractor losses, healthcare's relative strength is one of the clearer stabilizing forces in the local economy right now.
Local Economic Conditions
Pueblo's unemployment rate climbed to 6.6% in August, among the highest in Colorado and well above the state's 4.0% and the national 4.1%, as the wind-down of Battelle's chemical weapons destruction contract and Amentum's defense-contract layoffs continue to work through the local economy. A fresh closure — Mission Foods shutting its Santa Fe Drive tortilla plant by October 27, affecting 90 workers — adds to a pattern of manufacturing and contractor-driven job loss that has pushed metro employment down to roughly 67,100 in the latest preliminary reading, from 68,800 last November.
Open Threads in the Data
Repeated contractor-driven layoffs (Battelle, Amentum) alongside a traditional manufacturing closure (Mission Foods) point to a metro economy still absorbing the loss of a few large, concentrated employers rather than broad-based contraction — a distinction that matters for how commerce leaders and economic development officials target recovery efforts. Advertised pay softening across manufacturing-adjacent and administrative roles locally, even as healthcare and skilled trades hold firmer, suggests the metro's near-term resilience depends on how quickly displaced manufacturing and defense-contract workers are absorbed elsewhere in the local economy. Current conditions suggest economic development leaders may want to track how quickly workers exiting Mission Foods and Battelle move into open positions locally versus leaving the labor force or the metro entirely, as an early signal of whether this is a temporary adjustment or a structural contraction.
