The bad news is that joblessness in Colorado has risen to 6.1 percent, the highest level since August 2003. The good news, if you can call it that, is that the nation’s unemployment rate is higher (7.2 percent). That’s according to the Denver Business Journal, which contrasts the December unemployment figures with those of 2007, when just 4 percent of Coloradans were out of work.

Over the last year, Colorado has shed 16,200 jobs, most of them in the professional and business services sector. Trade, transportation and utilities, and construction jobs all took hits, too.

The latest bad news came yesterday as Denver-based Johns Manville Corp., a building and insulation manufacturer, said they’d be sacking 100 employees, the Rocky Mountain News reports.

Americans are cutting back on spending, too, which doesn’t bode well for jobs. Take, for example, the ski business, writes Reuters. East Coast skiers are hitting the slopes, but they tend to do it closer to home these days.