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CHARTS: Colorado's Unemployment Rate Drops Below 7 Percent

Friday, November 20, 2009

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment announced today that Colorado's unemployment rate has decreased for the third month in a row, down to 6.9 percent in October from 7.0 percent in September.

click here for chart:  2009 Colorado Monthly Unemployment Rate.pdf

Colorado continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, and we're 3.3 points below the national rate of 10.2 percent.

In fact, rates rose in 29 states in October, with 13 states now above the national average, including Michigan at 15.1 percent and Nevada at 13 percent.

While October's numbers are good news for Colorado, families and small businesses are still tightening their belts and making changes to their daily lives and operations. Too many Coloradans are still losing their jobs, healthcare and homes. And everyone is still feeling uncertain about the future.

We have a lot more hard work and tough choices ahead of us, but Governor Ritter's economic development strategy is leading us in the right direction. His initiatives are creating new jobs, assisting small businesses and leading us toward a quicker, stronger and sustainable recovery.

Governor Ritter is building a New Energy Economy that now employs nearly 20,000 people, the fourth-highest concentration of clean-energy workers in America. Governor Ritter is cutting taxes for 30,000 small businesses, investing in employee training, and reforming the business tax code to encourage economic growth.

A new round of 2009 economic-growth initiatives are:

• Giving small businesses greater access to loans and capital.
• Providing incentives to businesses that create new jobs.
• Generating the first new and sustained funding for transportation construction projects in two decades through the FASTER law.

Governor Ritter's strategies are creating new jobs and attracting national attention:

• Two German energy companies -- SMA Solar Technology and SGB Wind -- recently announced plans to open their first North American manufacturing facilities in Colorado, creating more than 700 new jobs between them.
• Fox News recently aired a segment, Here Comes the Sun, featuring Colorado's success at creating manufacturing jobs in the clean-energy sector.
• A new report from the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. shows that Colorado has the second-most educated workforce, third-highest rate of venture capital investment and fifth-highest rate of new-company formation.

Forbes.com and CNBC say Colorado is one of the best states in the country in which to do business, and other experts say we'll be one of the first states to emerge from the downturn because of our diverse economy, our strong base of small businesses, and our emphasis on manufacturing and innovation.

click here for file:  State-by-state unemployment rate, October 2009.pdf

As positive as today's unemployment news is, it's not good enough and we still have a long way to go. But we're making progress and moving forward.