New-business filings indicate potential for more jobs in Colorado

DENVER — New-business filings exhibited strong growth year-over-year at the end of the second quarter, raising future employment expectations, according to a report compiled by the University of Colorado for Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams.

The report — prepared by CU Boulder’s Business Research Division at the Leeds School of Business using data from the secretary of state’s business registry — looks at a variety of metrics, including new-business filings, business renewals, construction and the unemployment rate, both in Colorado and nationally.

“New-entity filing continued an upward trajectory, which is good news for our state,” Williams said in a prepared statement. “There are now nearly 650,000 business entities in good standing filed with our office.”

SPONSORED CONTENT

Business Cares: April 2024

In Colorado, 1 in 3 women, 1 in 3 men and 1 in 2 transgender individuals will experience an attempted or completed sexual assault in their lifetime. During April, we recognize Sexual Assault Awareness Month with the hopes of increasing conversations about this very important issue.

Over the 12 months ending in the second quarter, 113,949 new filings were recorded. Entities in good standing reached 647,246 in the second quarter, an increase of 6.1 percent year-over-year, a key number in assessing growth, said Brian Lewandowski, associate director of the Business Research Division.

The report said the pace of dissolution filings accelerated during the second quarter by 10.7 percent compared with the second quarter of 2016, representing 6,653 businesses dissolving.

Lewandowski said it’s difficult to come up with a timely and accurate number of businesses that dissolve because many of them don’t file the paperwork with the state or lag in making a report.

New-entity filings increased 5.9 percent year-over-year while decreasing 8.4 percent compared to last quarter, indicative of normal seasonal slowdown, according to the report. New-entity filings can be made by existing companies, in state and out of state, to conduct business in Colorado, such as buying property that may or may not result in adding employees in the state.

“In Colorado, like the U.S., there is a natural churn of businesses opening and closing. … The key number to look at is the number of companies in good standing,” Lewandowski said.

The report revealed that job growth in communities outside of the metropolitan statistical areas are lagging, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report said most of the state’s economic indicators showed strong growth year-over-year in the second quarter, and Colorado is expected to continue to adding jobs throughout 2017.

“At this time, the national economy appears poised to continue the third- longest expansion in U.S. history,” said economist Richard Wobbekind, executive director of the Business Research Division. “We see few warning signs that could derail this trajectory over the next year. Colorado’s economy is still holding strong.”