While Colorado’s economy has mostly recovered from the pandemic, mixed metrics from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators Report released Tuesday show growth and contraction in key areas.
New business filings with the Secretary of State in the first quarter of 2022 increased from the fourth quarter of 2021, but the total is lower year-on-year from the first quarter of 2021. Overall, more than 43,000 new business filings were filed with the Secretary of State in the first quarter of 2022. The renewal rates increased 10.3% in the first quarter of 2021, but resolution rates increased 20.4% over the same period.
Brian Lewandowski, Executive Director of the Business Research Division at the University of Colorado Boulder Leeds School of Business, pointed out that different metrics can tell different stories about the economy’s overall performance.
“If we look at the data, there’s a mixed story,” Lewandowski said.
While not every measure of the economy shows perfect growth, the overall outlook is much better than it was in April 2021 or 2020.
“We’re in a much better position in almost every way than we were a year or a year and a half ago,” Lewandowski said.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold shares optimism about the economy as the state recovers from the pandemic.
“The good news is that Colorado’s economy is in recovery mode,” Griswold said.
Colorado’s unemployment rate continues to decline, coming in at 3.7% in the first quarter of 2022, down 0.5 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2021. The employment rate is 69%.
As employment rates rise, many Colorado residents are feeling the effects of inflation. The report found that residents in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood area experienced inflation rates of 7.9%, higher than the national average of 6.9%. Lewandowski pointed out that the expectation of persistently high inflation could lead consumers to unintentionally exacerbate supply chain problems.
“As prices remain high and consumers expect high prices, they are changing their consumption habits,” Lewandowski said.
As consumers struggle with inflation and the high cost of living, they may turn to entrepreneurship to supplement their income. Griswold promoted two laws that could facilitate this process.
One of these is the recently passed Business Address and Name Filing Fraud Act, which would make it easier for small business owners to seek recourse if a bad actor fraudulently files under their name.
“A small business may have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation to recover its identity,” Griswold said.
The bill is on its way to the governor’s desk and, if signed, would give the secretary of state’s office the ability to take civil action against fraudsters.
Another bill, the “Business Filing Fee Reduction,” could reduce company incorporation fees to as low as $1. This bill is still under review in the state of Colorado.
This article was first published by BizWest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2022 BizWest Media LLC.
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