The Colorado Sun’s Tamara Chuang reports that Colorado’s unemployment rate held steady at 3.9% in March, but that headline hides a softer and more concerning labor picture. Since December, an estimated 26,192 Coloradans have stopped working or stopped looking for work, dropping the state’s labor force participation rate to 66.3%, the lowest since August 2020 and the fourth-lowest since 1976.
The article points to several possible reasons: aging baby boomers leaving the workforce, slower migration into Colorado, fewer job openings, business uncertainty, overregulation, childcare issues, benefit cliffs, and a mismatch between available jobs and available workers. In other words, the unemployment rate looks tidy, but the machinery underneath is making noises you do not want to hear from under the hood.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Colorado’s unemployment rate stayed at 3.9%, which sounds fine until you notice fewer people are actually participating in the labor force. That is like bragging your team did not lose while half the players left the field.
- More than 26,000 Coloradans have stopped working or looking for work since December. That is not a rounding error. That is a blinking dashboard light.
- The labor force participation rate dropped to 66.3%, the fourth-lowest mark since 1976. Outside the COVID mess, that is the kind of number that should make policymakers sit up straight and put down the catered sandwich.
- Economists cited demographics, retirements, slow migration, a slowing job market, childcare problems, benefit structures, and business climate concerns. Translation: the answer is complicated, which means politicians will immediately oversimplify it.
- Greeley and Fort Collins saw year-over-year employment growth while much of the rest of the state did not. Northern Colorado once again quietly keeps working while the Denver-Boulder bubble studies the vibes.
My Bottom Line
I really do not have much more substantive commentary than this: read the article and take note.
Any thinking person’s question is simple: why? Why is Colorado’s labor market shrinking? Why are fewer people working or even looking for work? Why are businesses pulling back? Why are people leaving, retiring early, sitting out, or finding that work no longer pencils out in this state?
And then comes the question that hits every household: how does this affect the price of goods and services in our once-great state? When fewer people are working, fewer people are producing, serving, building, hauling, cooking, repairing, processing, delivering, and keeping the wheels turning. That pressure does not stay in some economist’s spreadsheet. It shows up in the grocery aisle, the restaurant bill, the repair estimate, the construction bid, and the service call.
I am no economist, but I cannot help believing the price of chicken will go up. And by chicken, I mean everything normal families buy, need, fix, drive, eat, or use. Labor shortages do not make life cheaper. A shrinking workforce does not make services more available. A weakening business climate does not make Colorado more affordable.
That is something none of us can afford. So yes, read the piece. Ask why. Then ask whether the people running this state have any intention of making Colorado easier to live, work, hire, build, and do business in. I will wait, but I will not wait with much optimism.
Source: The Colorado Sun
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