Pitkin County’s unemployment rate remains low and flat, bucking a state and national trend towards creeping-higher joblessness.

Although Colorado’s unemployment rate hit 5.1 percent in June, the highest level since 2005, Pitkin County’s unemployment rate remains consistently below 4 percent, except during the off-seasons. At the peak of the winter ski season, the unemployment rate here tends to hover around 2.5 percent. Statistics are taken from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment Web page.

The nationwide unemployment rate is 5.5 percent, up from 4.6 percent a year ago, thanks to losses in construction, manufacturing and employment services, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

 Joe Winter, an economist with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, noted that Pitkin County, with its resort economy, and Garfield County, with its oil and gas industry, make up “one of the more stable employment environments, not just in the state, but the whole country, I would venture to guess.”

The jobless rate in Pitkin County tends to fluctuate from month to month due to the seasonality of the labor market. June’s rate of 3.7 percent was down from May’s average of 5.9 percent, which was more than double the 2.4 percent unemployment rate for the period January through April.

“We pretty much see the same seasonal patterns,” Winter said. “A couple tenths of a percent in an area the size of Pitkin County is statistically insignificant.”

curtis@aspendailynews.com