Report finds jobs, GDP, income all rising in Colorado, though momentum is fading.鈥�
The Denver skyline on a clear day. According to a new report from Leeds and Colorado's secretary of state, the economy is in a state of growing, but slowing, as key indicators like employment and GDP have started to lose momentum.听
Growing, but slowing.听
That鈥檚 the key takeaway from the Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators Report prepared by the Business Research Division at the University of Colorado Boulder鈥檚 Leeds School of Business, in partnership with the Colorado secretary of state鈥檚 office.听
鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing slower growth in jobs, GDP, personal income and retail, as well as declines in home pricing and construction,鈥� said Brian Lewandowski, BRD executive director. 鈥淎ll of that contributes to the idea that Colorado is in a growing, but slowing, economy.鈥澨�
While Colorado has been among the national leaders in job recovery coming out of the pandemic, that rate is slowing down. Employment grew 1.2 percent year over year in March, though the state鈥檚 labor force participation rate ranked fourth highest in the country in March (68.3 percent). The labor force grew 0.7 percent year over year, and Colorado鈥檚 per capita personal income ranked eighth at $75,206.
A very welcoming sign for businesses and the economy is an improvement in inflation. The Consumer Price Index increased 5.7 percent year over year in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metro area, only slightly ahead of the national rate of 5 percent.
Other highlights from the report, which summarizes activity from the first quarter of 2023:听
- New-entity filings soared 27.6 percent year over year, a record for the first quarter. Lewandowski attributed this to a fee credit that reduced limited liability filing fees to $1.
- Colorado鈥檚 businesses generally are healthy. Business renewals increased year over year and over the previous quarter鈥�1.2 percent and 13.3 percent, respectively鈥攁nd the list of entities considered to be in good standing increased 7.4 percent over the year.
- The home price index fell for six of Colorado鈥檚 seven metro areas. Only the Pueblo region recorded growth (0.5 percent).听
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