- December 17, 2017
- Colorado Center on Law and Policy
- Michelle Webster, Jesus Loayza
Colorado has one of the strongest performing economies in the country. Job growth has been robust for the past several years, consistently ranking Colorado among the top states for job creation. The unemployment rate has dropped steadily since 2010 to 3.3 percent in 2016. Real median household income continues to grow and is now slightly above the pre-recession level. And poverty rates have fallen since 2012, dropping to 11 percent in 2016.
Yet, this report points to several challenges to achieving an economic recovery in Colorado that is broadly shared and enduring:
- The median hourly wage has been falling or flat since the recovery began.
- Economic gains are increasingly concentrated among a small share of high earners in the state.
- While jobs have returned to the state, not all workers have returned to work.
- Colorado is increasingly becoming a multiracial state with a persistent race-based economic divide.