The recent BLS jobs report for Colorado had mixed news.
The good news is that Colorado will see solid job growth this year. The bad news is that jobs are being added at a slower rate than earlier in the year.
On the street, most Colorado business owners are not pleased with government leadership, but they are generally upbeat about the economy.
The unemployment rate was flat from February through August. The slight declines in September and October are a sign that the rate continues to slowly move downward. BLS reports the state rate is lower than the rate for the U.S.; however, it is not statistically different than the U.S. (The latest state rate is 6.8% compared to 7.3% for the U.S.)
On a positive note, the number of unemployed workers has fallen to 185,500. This is the lowest number of unemployed since February 2009; however, it is more than twice the pre-recession number.
The wage and salary data is mostly positive. The average number of jobs added for the first 10 months of 2013 is about 56,400 greater than the same period last year. Unfortunately, jobs have been added at a declining rate since March.
Colorado is on track to add about 55,000 jobs for 2013, an increase of 2.3%. The question is, “Given this downward trend in the number of jobs being added, what lies ahead for 2014?”
All jobs are important; however, there is concern there are too few jobs being added that “create” other jobs or bring in wealth from the outside. The lack of a sufficient number of new primary jobs may be the reason for the decreasing rate of growth. State and local economic developers are working hard to address this issue.
It is unlikely the state numbers were noticeably impacted by the September flooding and the limited Government shutdown. The flooding clearly had a negative impact on the local economies and the limited government shutdown may have caused inconvenience for cities and companies that are heavily dependent on federal funding. These events will likely have a greater impact on overall output than employment.
For the most part, the latest jobs report bodes well for the state.
©Copyright 2011 by CBER.