Colorado’s unemployment rate remained above double digits in June  — at 10.5% — with new unemployment claims continuing at a high pace. But even as the state and the Boulder Valley struggle with jobless claims amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a few sectors are adding jobs.

Industries and employers such as grocery stores, information technology, personal protective equipment manufacturing and biotechnology are bucking the job-reduction trend, providing hope to a wide range of unemployed workers.

Grocery store shelves are being cleared faster than clerks can restock. Distribution companies are rushing to keep up with orders. Manufacturers and garment workers are working long hours to meet demands for personal protective equipment. The pandemic has left many at polar extremes: not working enough or working too much.

Economist Gary Horvath of Broomfield-based Business and Economic Research sees hiring accelerating in tourism, retail, warehouses and health care, based on state data.

“We’re in extraordinary times right now because of the lockdown. We basically put a lot of people on the sidelines,” Horvath said. But now is the time for unemployed Coloradans to apply for work, he added.

He predicts that there are more employment opportunities than there will be in the winter. If coronavirus cases increase then , hiring will slow, he said.

The job market is recovering, but unemployment claims still continue.

Colorado has seen 190 layoff or furlough notices filed under the Worker Readjustment and Retraining Notification Act since March 9. The common thread was the COVID-19 pandemic.

Employers in Colorado added 55,000 nonfarm payroll jobs from May to June, according to a July 17 report from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment based on a survey of business establishments. However, many of those added positions are restoring the 342,300 nonfarm payroll jobs lost between February and April.

So far, Colorado restored 126,000 lost jobs, putting the state at a job-recovery rate of 36.8%, exceeding the U.S. rate of 33.8%, the CDLE said.​​

While some jobs returned to the market, others left. An additional 8,486 Coloradans filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending July 18, according to the CDLE. During the same week, 9,233 self-employed and gig workers in Colorado applied for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, up 4,200 from the prior week.

Booming business

Braden and Alison Todd, owners of Boulder-based Glassmith2 LLC, worked around the clock to keep up with demand when they shifted from custom award-making and engraving services to laser-cutting face shields and sneeze guards. For a short period, Braden spent nights in the shop, resting on a cot while the laser-machine ran.

With staggered shifts for Glassmith2’s staff, the Todds found themselves short-handed and fulfilling most of the nonstop orders. Now, they are ready to hire.

Glassmith2 has hired two employees to its 10-person staff after a couple of employees chose not to return after graduating from the University of Colorado Boulder. But it needs reinforcements to assist with orders and is looking for more workers, Braden Todd said.

Braden, a sixth-generation Boulder resident, followed in his grandfather’s footsteps when he opened Glassmith2 in 2002. His grandfather, Wiley Smith, owned the Glass-Smith, a glass etching and carving business.

Until the pandemic, Glassmith2 was focused on custom awards. The company has been the designated award supplier for Ironman North America since 2015.

With events such as the 2020 Ironman 70.3 Boulder triathlon that was set for Aug. 1 canceled, the shop’s specialty is put on hold.

Glassmith2 joined the Make4Covid LCA initiative in February. The M4C effort is a community of Colorado makers and manufacturers that helps address the personal protection equipment shortage for frontline workers. It also develops and tests medical equipment.

According to the M4C website, 81,532 pieces of PPE have been delivered during the initiative’s 15-week operation. Glassmith2 is one of the 105 partners using its skills and machinery.

“With the award production, that led us to buying larger, more production based machines as well,” Braden Todd said. “So because we have those machines already for the awards, we were able to basically overnight shift gears into the PPE production.”

Glassmith2 worked on face shields for the M4C initiative. Alison Todd estimates that the shop laser cut 50,000 face shields to date.

As demand for face shields began to decline, a need for sneeze guards grew as Colorado restaurants reopened in late May.

Colorado Plastic Products Inc., a plastic fabrication company in Louisville, contracts with Glassmith2 to help with large sneeze-guard orders.

Drew Schwartz, Colorado Plastic owner, said that Glassmith2’s laser-cutting machine is faster and cuts cleaner than the plastic company’s machinery.

Before the pandemic, Colorado Plastic occasionally built sneeze guards for restaurant salad bars and cafeterias. Now, restaurants, hotels and retailers need the plastic barrier between workers and customers. Just 10 sneeze guard orders in a year was considered a lot, Schwartz said. In the last few months, the company received more than 1,000 orders.

He said that the company’s retail sales increased by 6% of total sales this year primarily due to sneeze guards. But overall revenue is similar to last year, with business-to-business sales, or selling plastic to manufacturers, decreasing.

The pivot toward protective materials is keeping Glassmith2 in business and its employees in the shop.

“I feel like the work that we’re able to do is positive for the community and makes a difference,” Alison Todd said. “We’re definitely very appreciative and grateful that we’re able to hire employees, keep them employed and also be doing something that could hopefully keep people safe.”

Finding work in fighting pandemic

Jobs are also being added in the life-sciences arena, with one Boulder company expanding its workforce in part to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

CordenPharma Colorado, a contract development and manufacturing organization, inked an agreement with Moderna Inc. to produce lipid excipients to be used in the development of a vaccine for COVID-19, as reported by BizWest in June.

It extends an existing manufacturing agreement, permitting rapid development of the material that Moderna needs to bring a vaccine to market.

Debra Capra, director of human resources, Environmental Health and Safety and Business Services, said that CordenPharma has been ramping up its hiring for six months. Though the company has several projects, a number of hires support the vaccination effort.

Chemical operators are brought on through an intensive, several-month apprenticeship program. There’s on the job equipment training. Classroom training is in partnership with Front Range Community College.

CordenPharma has two operations in Boulder. To date, 30 people have joined the company’s Boulder operations to support various projects. There are around 375 employees between the two Boulder sites, Capra said.

COVID-19 has also prompted some companies to alter their product line. Fabricate Inc., a fabric boutique and sewing studio in downtown Boulder, brought in 50% of its sales through classes. It started sewing masks to mitigate canceled in-person gatherings.

Fabricate began selling masks on a new ecommerce site and doing porch pickup. Spillmann and instructors were sewing masks from home.

Fabric sales have increased by 30%, said owner Linda Spillmann. Classes have moved online with some outdoors on the store porch.

Two instructors left Fabricate on their own accord while the store was closed to the public, but Spillmann has since hired two more people.

State government is also adding jobs. Colorado has hired students with public health backgrounds, social workers and public health epidemiologists to aid a statewide contact-tracing program. The Colorado State Joint Information Center said in an email that 50 contractors from the Colorado School of Public Health are on staff at CDPHE and have been or will be helping local public health agencies.

Separate from CDPHE, “a survey of local public health agencies identified 115 full-time equivalent local public health workers conducting COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracing in Colorado.” Data was collected in May with the last update on June 12.

In addition, more than 800 AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps VISTA and Senior Corps volunteers will also help with contact tracing. To date, 423 Service Corps members have started the program and others are in the process of training.

Chana Goussetis, public information officer for Boulder County, said that existing staff in the public-health or another county department have been trained on contact tracing. However, there are not sufficient funds to hire new employees.

Essential economy

Other industries that aren’t directly involved with COVID-19 efforts hired more help as consumer demand increased.

Design Studio Interior Solutions LLC, a Boulder interior-design firm, is benefiting from cabin fever. The company has already hit last year’s revenue and number of projects, said Judy Goldman, owner and CEO of Design Studio and its sister company, Front Range Design Center.

She said that phone calls for residential projects began rolling in around May.

“I believe that it’s really giving people the opportunity to say, ‘Hey I want to do this project. We’re going to be in the house for the next period of our lives. We’re going to be in the house for the next six to nine months to a year and I’m tired of looking at the old kitchen or the bathroom or the basement,’” Goldman said.

One employee was laid off early into the outbreak, she said, but the company has since hired an entry-level designer and a project manager and is looking for a senior designer.

Larger corporations are hiring around the country and in the state. Delivery services and online retail are growing in popularity as Coloradans stay home.

Amazon Inc. spokeswoman Anne Laughlin said there are currently 1,000 positions in Colorado that need to be filled, which include operations, fulfillment, tech and corporate positions.

Grocery stores were one industry that started hiring in March and haven’t slowed down by much.

Colorado-headquartered King Soopers, a subsidiary of Kroger, brought on more employees. Since March, more than 300 workers in Boulder County, and more than 6,000 workers across the state, were hired, according to Jessica Trowbridge, a spokesperson for King Soopers and City Market.

“To help keep our stores stocked with fresh, affordable food and essentials throughout the pandemic and beyond King Soopers has recently provided new career opportunities in a variety of positions across our company from courtesy clerk to entry level salary management,” she said in an email.

Trowbridge wrote the chain, with three locations each in Boulder, Broomfield and Longmont and one each in Erie, Firestone, Lafayette, Louisville, continues to hire.

Walmart Inc. made a commitment to hire 200,000 associates in March and fulfilled that promise in April. At this time, more than 400,000 hires have joined the grocery chain nationwide, according to Logan Wilson, senior communications manager for Walmart.

Of that number, 10,000 positions are filled in Colorado. There are two stores in the city of Broomfield with 315 new associates. In Boulder County, there are 379 hires among four stores and one Sam’s Club.

Wilson said that as the COVID-19 pandemic turned the job market upside down, Walmart reached out to hard-hit industries including hospitality and hotels. Associate positions offered were temporary jobs that could turn permanent.

“We just were looking to reach out to industries that we know we’re being hit hard by the effects of the pandemic and give them a career opportunity,” Wilson said.

For Albertsons Cos. Inc., parent company to Safeway Inc., there hasn’t been a lag in new jobs. Since March, Albertsons and Safeway grocery stores have hired more than 3,000 in Colorado, said Kris Staaf, senior director of public affairs for Albertsons and Safeway. There are 100 stores in the state, with three in Boulder, she said.

Nontraditional shopping methods are growing in popularity, she said. Shoppers are opting for delivery and pickup methods, limiting their exposure to others as they run errands. Albertsons declined to share growth numbers in the delivery and pickup services but said that its a large increase from before the health crisis.

Staaf added that while the company is always hiring, a large volume of hires occurred at the end of March. Panic buying and higher levels of customer traffic were factors in bringing on more workers.

Safeway and Albertsons stores were able to staff people who were recently laid off or furloughed, she said.

“We were able to hire a lot of people, and it was an opportunity to be flexible I think because we could hire part time, we could hire full time, and we could help fill that gap for people who might have been displaced,” Staaf said.