Growth Archives - Colorado-based Business and Economic Research

Since 1990 Colorado manufacturing employment has fared better than U.S. manufacturing employment. This has occurred in part because Colorado has grown off a much smaller base. Also the mix of companies in Colorado has not included some of the industries, such as textiles, that were hit hardest by outsourcing.

Colorado’s strength in manufacturing is beverages such as Coors/Miller and Budweiser. As well, the state has competencies in select high-tech sectors.

The bad news for Colorado is that the industry’s location quotient, or concentration, is well below 1.0 and trending downward. In other words, Colorado has a lower concentration of manufacturers than the U.S.

U.S. vs. Colorado Manufacturing Employment.

For the period 1997 to 2012, Colorado Real GDP expanded on a more consistent basis than the Colorado manufacturing output. In other words, overall output growth was less volatile.

However; manufacturing Real GDP grew at an annualized rate of 4.6% compared to 2.9% for Real GDP. The faster rate of growth for Colorado occurred, in part, because the manufacturing sector expanded off a much smaller base. Also, a portion of Colorado manufacturing is high value goods, such as electronics.

For this period, total employment increased as an annualized rate of 1.0% and manufacturing declined at an annualized rate of 2.3%. It is clear that gains in output were made as a result of capital expenditures, rather than investment in labor.

Note: At the time of this writing, the 2012 data was the most current data available.

Tag: Growth

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