The folks at CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business put on their rose-colored glasses before delivering its mid-year economic update to announce that 30,000 more jobs than anticipated were created by employers this year.
Then the glasses came off for Brian Lewandowski, before delivering the rest of the school’s report on the state of the state’s economy:
In many ways, the economy is a tale of contradictions. Lewandowski noted that business filings through the Colorado Secretary of State’s office are up this year, but so are dissolutions. Output growth — a statewide measure of gross domestic product — is outpacing national levels yet concerns about inflation and federal monetary policies are soaring.
“I think that businesses are being very cautious in their outlook,” he said. “There are so many job openings and so few workers that even if they are worried about the future or they’re worried about current conditions, employers are latching onto those workers.”
In other words, it’s not much help to temporarily cut fees to open a business, if there’s no employee workforce to staff it.
— Jared Polis (@PolisForCO) July 18, 2022
The Colorado Business Journal goes on to report that inflation is outpacing wage gains — mostly realized by changing jobs, which will likely lead to a slowdown in consumer and business spending.
Growth is expected to slow in the third quarter with no growth at all expected in the fourth quarter.
The mid-year update comes as Colorado sits on an odd precipice of producing continued job growth but also seeing business confidence plummet. Industries have experienced gains in employment across the board, but the third-quarter Leeds Confidence Index showed economic optimism among employers dropping to its lowest level since April 2020.
The forecast doesn’t bode well for Democrats who are running for reelection on social and cultural issues rather than the economy.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is promising welfare checks instead of economic fixes, and Gov. Polis is campaigning on freedoms we already have.
Reproductive healthcare is a fundamental freedom.
Voting access is a fundamental freedom.
Same sex marriage is a fundamental freedom.— Jared Polis (@PolisForCO) July 17, 2022
Abortion is not healthcare, no voters in America are being denied access to vote, and marriage is not freedom.
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