DENVER – Colorado’s unemployment rate surged to a record 11.3% in April as the state lost more than 323,000 jobs because of the economic shutdown in response to the coronavirus outbreak, the state labor department said Friday.

The unemployment rate is the highest for Colorado since it began keeping comparable records in 1976. The previous record high unemployment rate for the state was 8.9% which held from September to December 2010, the department said. Nationally, the unemployment rate increased in April to 14.7%, the highest since similar records began in 1948.

According to a survey of businesses, 311,400 nonfarm jobs were lost in the private sector and 12,100 jobs were cut in government in Colorado last month. Some of the largest job losses were in the leisure and hospitality, education and health services, trade, transportation and utilities, professional and business services and construction sectors, the department said.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The vast majority of people recover.