The federal stimulus and recovery funding will go toward five urban visitors bureaus and two rural communities to help regain tourist traffic lost in the pandemic
economic recovery
What’s Working: Where Colorado’s COVID economic recovery is better and worse than the rest of the country
Colorado’s economy continues to improve from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that was expected as businesses adapted and employees returned to work. We are, after all, nearly two years from Spring 2020’s massive business disruptions. What makes Colorado’s economy stand out is how much better — or worse — it has recovered compared […]
Rebuilding after disaster takes a community — and a streamlined process — say Coloradans who lost homes in Waldo Canyon fire
Within 24 hours of the devastating Waldo Canyon fire on a hot June day in 2012, a unique recovery team began to form that included the mayor, builders, contractors, insurers, private businesses, the utility company and residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed. The nonprofit known as Colorado Springs Together worked through recovery from a […]
What’s Working: Colorado Springs is the only metro area that has recovered all jobs lost in the pandemic
Colorado continues to recover jobs lost at the start of the COVID pandemic. In November, the state’s job recovery rate reached 85.7%, the 17th fastest in the nation, according to new labor department data. But only one metro area in the state has recovered all of its lost jobs: Colorado Springs. The region now has […]
What’s Working: A third-quarter check on Colorado’s economy and more on worker deaths and COVID
Twenty months into a pandemic that changed how people work — or think about what they want out of a job — the stats around Colorado’s economy appear mixed-to-dismal if you don’t have some perspective. But more on that below. This wasn’t meant to be a sequel to last week’s column on worker deaths related […]
Colorado businesses relied on sidewalk extensions to make a profit during COVID. They may be here to stay.
DURANGO — From their office overlooking Durango’s main drag, marketer Maggie Kavan and architect Michael Carrier watched in the spring of 2020 as the pandemic closed businesses and emptied out downtown. And they saw how restaurants responded by erecting a hodgepodge of outdoor seating areas, some of which seemed unsafe or created a messy look. […]
Joe Biden will make a stop in Denver on Tuesday
Updated on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021: The White House now says that President Joe Biden will visit Colorado on Tuesday. The Democrat is slated to visit the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden. The White House says Biden will “deliver remarks underscoring how the investments in his Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal and Build Back Better Agenda will […]
What’s Working: There are more job openings than Coloradans on unemployment. Matchmaking isn’t easy.
The pandemic has created an out-of-balance workforce, and there could be more big changes next month. On one hand, somewhere around 100,000 Coloradans will stop receiving weekly unemployment checks after Sept. 4, when federal pandemic benefits end. On the other, thousands of employers are trying to fill 126,773 jobs, the state’s official job board showed […]
Federal loans saved Colorado salons last year. But now other economic forces are cutting their profits.
When Deseo Salon and BlowDry in Denver was forced to close for two months in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, owner Sherry Velarde didn’t know what was in store for the future. Like hundreds of thousands of Colorado businesses, Velarde applied for a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan, the popular COVID-19 relief aid for […]
Half of Colorado lives in a day care desert. Here’s how that’s straining one mountain community.
After watching her boss struggle to find child care in remote northwestern Colorado, Tegan Ebbert diligently planned how to keep working after the birth of her son in January. Baby August was quickly placed on the waiting list for a local day care and Ebbert’s mother drove in from Wisconsin to help out for a […]