Economy & Economic Development  May 5, 2021

CU report: First quarter results mixed for Colorado economy

DENVER — Colorado added a record 44,740 new corporations, nonprofits and other entities filed during the first quarter of 2021, but lagged behind the national average in employment.

Initial filings were up 29.2% from the previous period and renewals grew by 1%, a positive sign for the pandemic recovery effort, according to the Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators report from Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and the Leeds Business Research Division at the University of Colorado. 

However, nagging unemployment remains a concern. Colorado’s unemployment rate is 6.4%, higher than the 6% national average and good for 34th best in the country. 

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Also of concern is the record-high 10,658 business dissolutions during the first quarter. 

“There are reasons to be optimistic about Colorado’s economy, but recovery to this point is still mixed,” Griswold said. 

Optimism is buoyed by the continued vaccine rollout and the rollback of business capacity restrictions. 

Colorado is projected to add 90,000 jobs in 2021 with gains expected to continue into 2022, according to the report. But even if the state does add the jobs it expects to this year, it won’t make up for the more than nearly 134,000 jobs lost in the last year. 

The leisure and hospitality sector accounts for 46% of those losses. 

“It’s starting to look more like a broad-based recovery, although there certainly still are pockets of communities that are suffering in this recession,” Leeds Business Research Division executive director Brian Lewandowski said. 

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DENVER — Colorado added a record 44,740 new corporations, nonprofits and other entities filed during the first quarter of 2021, but lagged behind the national average in employment.

Initial filings were up 29.2% from the previous period and renewals grew by 1%, a positive sign for the pandemic recovery effort, according to the Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators report from Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and the Leeds Business Research Division at the University of Colorado. 

However, nagging unemployment remains a concern. Colorado’s unemployment rate is 6.4%, higher than the 6% national average and good for 34th best in the country. 

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Lucas High
A Maryland native, Lucas has worked at news agencies from Wyoming to South Carolina before putting roots down in Colorado.
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