December 20, 2024 By Nash Herman

The University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business recently released their 60th annual Business Outlook for 2025, and, despite a moderate outlook  in 2025, the report includes some disturbing trends in the Colorado economy.  Let’s take a look at some of what’s going wrong.

Troubling trends

As pointed out by Denver Post business writer Aldo Svaldi, Colorado was the fifth fastest growing economy in the country in the last 15 years, but was 41st this year.

In terms of personal income growth, Colorado moved from third to 39th.

Although Colorado only moved down from sixth to 15th for employment growth, it comes with the caveat that the job gains this year were skewed toward government, education and healthcare, and leisure and hospitality.

Conversely, the growth of the high-paying professional and business services industry has continued a downward trend since 2022.

Fueled by slowing migration to Colorado and an aging population, Colorado’s labor force growth ranking also moved from sixth to 29th.

Taxes, spending and regulation

Obviously, some of the problems with Colorado’s economy are externally caused, like the lingering effects of the pandemic and subsequent inflation from federal spending.

However, I think there is still more to be said as to why Colorado’s economy seems to be stuttering now.

Colorado’s shift toward bigger government and away from the free market is why these problems are beginning to manifest. Over-regulation, over-spending, and over-taxation are the key culprits. To Coloradans who have witnessed the economy’s decline, the most noticeable difference between today and twenty years ago is that the state now more closely resembles California more than the entrepreneurial Colorado of old. Continue reading →