The Colorado Springs area job market improved a bit in November as the unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent, the lowest level of the year. The area’s jobless rate has now declined in three of the past four months.

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment also Friday said it had revised the area’s unemployment rate for October from 7.5 percent to 7.6 percent; the rate had climbed above 8 percent for much of the first half of the year. The jobless numbers are adjusted for seasonal changes and are based on a survey of households.

Few of the area’s unemployed workers are finding jobs, though, the department reported. Area payrolls continue to decline at a record pace, falling in November by 10,400, or 4.1 percent, from a year ago, with the biggest job losses coming in manufacturing, retailing, construction and professional and technical services. Those numbers, also adjusted for seasonal changes, come from a survey of businesses and don’t include those who are self-employed.

“We are still seeing local jobs declining at an unprecedented rate, but the good news is that we have seen the bottom,” said Dave Bamberger, managing director of Summit Economics LLC, a Springs-based economic research firm. “Most of the indicators — unemployment, sales tax collections and housing construction and sales — show that the steep decline the local economy has experienced since mid-2007 is over, but it will be a couple of years until we see a complete recovery.”

The statewide unemployment rate fell to 6.9 percent in November, the lowest since January, from 7 percent in each of the previous two months. But it remains significantly higher than the 5.4 percent rate of November 2008. Statewide payroll employment last month was down 3.9 percent from a year ago.—Contact the writer at 636-0234

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