Colorado economy shows signs of slowing

DENVER — Colorado’s economy is still chugging along in the right direction, although more slowly when compared to its own recent performance and to other states.

Inflation is cooling, and new business filings are up, but job growth is only just above flat, according to Colorado’s Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators report, released Thursday by the Colorado Secretary of State’s office and the University of Colorado Leeds Business Research Division.

“There are a lot of very positive signs for the state,” said Rich Wobbekind, associate dean for business and government relations at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, but “there’s clearly signs of the state slowing down.”

Still, the state and national economies have been “overperforming” in 2023 compared with economists’ expectations heading into the year, he said.

New-business-entity filings were up 39.1% year over year in the second quarter, but down 1.6% from a record-setting first quarter.

Dissolutions and renewals were both nearly flat in the second quarter compared with the same period last year. 

These somewhat heartening indicators, “still come with concerns about future growth,” Wobbekind said. 

For example, Colorado’s job growth was a measly 1.5% in June 2023, good for 44th in the national rankings.

In the Denver metro area, the consumer price index was up 5.1% year-over-year in May 2023. Nationally, it was only up 3%.

While inflation has slowed — albeit less so in parts of Colorado — “we know that the prices of goods and services still remain high for many hardworking Coloradans who continue to face high housing costs,” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said.