Colorado new business filings increase 7.2% in Q3

Colorado recorded an increase in new business filings in the third quarter, but the numbers declined from the robust pace of the second quarter.

New business filings in Colorado increased 7.2%, to 44,618, compared with 44,627 in the third quarter of 2024. But the numbers declined 12.9% from the second quarter, when the state recorded 51,202 new business filings.

Existing-entity renewals were down on a quarterly and annual basis.

The data comes from the newly released Colorado Secretary of State’s Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators report, prepared by the Business Research Division at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business.

In a Monday conference call announcing the latest data, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold noted that some data points aren’t yet available because of the federal government shutdown.

“September job numbers were due to come out Oct. 3, but due to the shutdown, we do not have those numbers yet,” Griswold noted. “So this report reflects data from July and August, but until the shutdown is resolved, we will not have the September numbers in this quarter’s report.”

Other economic indicators reflect a mixed picture for the state economy.

Colorado posted anemic job growth of 0.6% in August, adding 18,300 jobs year-over-year, ranking the state 34th for the pace of growth. Month-over-month growth ranked the state 21st. The Trade, Transportation and Utilities sector recorded one of the month’s biggest declines.

Griswold laid the blame for August’s slower job growth in part on tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

“Trump’s tariff chaos from earlier this year is almost certainly a factor in that industry’s downturn,” she said of the Trade, Transportation and Utilities sector.

National inflation grew 2.7% in July and 2.9% in August. Denver MSA prices were up 2.1% in July, according to the Consumer Price Index published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Like the nation, Colorado’s employment continues to rise, albeit slowly,” according to the quarterly indicators report, compiled by the University of Colorado Business Research Division. “The 0.6% pace of growth in August 2025 ranked Colorado 34th, while the month-over-month growth ranked 21st. August employment increased 18,300 year-over-year.”

The largest annual percentage increases came from Information, Leisure and Hospitality, and Education and Health Services, according to the report, with Financial Activities; Trade, Transportation, and Utilities; and Mining and Logging recording the greatest percentage over-the-year losses.

August unemployment stood at 4.2% in August, slightly better than the national rate of 4.3%, with slower immigration contributing to slower growth in the labor force and helping maintain a lower unemployment rate.

Colorado real GDP increased 3.5% quarter-over-quarter (annualized), ranking 26th, and 1.8% year-over-year, ranking 22nd. Personal income grew 5% over the year, ranking Colorado 29th.

Rich Wobbekind, senior economist at CU’s Business Research Division, cautioned that Colorado faces a period of slower growth.

“We came off of a 15-year run that was kind of astronomical, from 2008 to 2023, and there’s bound to be a slowdown at some point,” Wobbekind said, with the ongoing federal shutdown adding to the uncertainty.

“I have to say you have to have some concerns about future GDP growth … because we don’t know what the impact of the shutdown is going to be in terms of GDP,” he said. “Will it affect consumption in particular? Will households start to get nervous and we start to see less consumption? And how is stagflation going to impact this in terms of the overall growth?”

Colorado also has seen significant cutbacks in federal employment, including at federal research laboratories in Boulder, Jefferson and Larimer counties.

“We’re about the 21st or 22nd largest state when it comes to jobs and GDP, but we recorded the seventh-greatest decline in federal government employment year over year in August,” said Brian Lewandowski, executive director of the Business Research Division. “So that shows that we’ve already sort of seen a disproportionate impact when it comes to the federal reduction, and I don’t think it’s fully reflecting the changes yet, and the way our office has been thinking about it is because of our concentration of institutions like the federal research laboratories, we feel that we have a disproportionate exposure to some of the federal government restructuring.”

Editor’s note: This article has been updated.

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