Coloradans have heard rumors for the past few months that our economy may be improving. Unfortunately, it was just a rumor. Two pieces of news recently surfaced that indicated Colorado as well as the nation is in an economic slump – the jobs report was dismal and Colorado’s child poverty rate is the second fastest-growing in the nation.
This morning, the U.S. jobs numbers were released by the Department of Labor and the number of new jobs added to the economy versus what was expected was a huge miss. Nationally, it was expected that the economy would add 190,000 new jobs in March. It added just 88,000. Not even half. While some publications blamed this trend on a “post-sequester world”, employers have said that they’re hesitant to hire because of government regulation and the cost of Obamacare, which continues to spiral out of control.
Perhaps the under-employment situation is not surprising to the sobering number of children who live in poverty in Colorado – the second fastest growing state in the union, said the Colorado Children’s Campaign.
According to its annual report, the rate of children living in poverty in the state skyrocketed from 10 percent in 2000 to 18 percent in 2011. According to the press release, this increase represents an additional 113,000 children living in poverty.
The report, part of the Anne E. Casey Foundation’s national Kids County project, found that the rate of children living in poverty almost doubled between 2000 and 2011, to 18 percent from 10 percent, a trend experts say could get worse as the state slowly recovers from recent economic recessions.
While the Colorado Children’s Campaign noted that the state would “slowly recover”, the sad reality is that the Colorado legislature have focused on everything but jobs and the economy. In fact, the Democrats are doing everything in their power to chase jobs from the state – from passing the high-capacity magazine ban, which killed several hundred jobs, to raising billions of dollars in new taxes on small businesses to killing pro-business legislation. Coloradans and our children deserve better.
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