Colorado lawmakers are introducing a new bill, aimed at helping save jobs during our state's economic downturn.

It's called the Colorado Workshare Program. It would give businesses an alternative to laying off of some employees by instead reducing the overall work hours of all employees.

Employers would have to certify to the state that they were going to lay off employees, but then chose to cut back on all workers' hours proportionally.

Employees would then share remaining work, but collect unemployment benefits for their reduced work hours. The bill is sponsored in the house by Democratic state Rep. Sal Pace of Pueblo, who says the bill would help everyone involved. ""It's a win for workers, it's a win for businesses, and it keeps people employed," said Rep. Pace.

Rep. Pace says the legislation would also save the state money. Rather than paying out full unemployment benefits for 26 weeks, under the Workshare program, the state would pay out partial unemployment benefits to those employees who had their work hours cut for 18 weeks.