If you haven’t heard, King Soopers employees are on strike to protest unfair labor practices. Not all of them — only those at 77 stores from Boulder to Parker. But more may join soon as employment contracts in Pueblo, Fort Collins, Greeley and elsewhere expire this month or next. United Food and Commercial Workers Local […]
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Posted inCrime and Courts, Economy, Education, Health, News, Politics and Government
What will be debated at the Colorado Capitol when the legislature returns next week
Gov. Jared Polis wants Colorado to become one of the top 10 safest states in the U.S. within five years, he said Thursday night during a virtual Colorado Sun event ahead of the 2022 legislative session, which begins next week on Jan. 12. “It’ll take a lot of work to get there,” he said. Polis, […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: As 2022 begins, vaccines, EVs and the allure of the cosmos give us much to celebrate
Like baseball’s opening day and that moment when you accept a jar of sourdough starter from a friend, the dawn of a new year is a time for hope and wide-eyed optimism. And despite the headlines, lots of encouraging news is out there if we just bother to look for it. So, as we look […]
Posted inBusiness, Economy, News
What’s Working: How Colorado is ensuring companies share how much jobs pay
Happy New Year everyone! It’s a great time to start fresh. But unfortunately, I’m still hearing that 2021 will linger on for some folks who remain unemployed, are still waiting on pandemic jobless benefits (like this guy), or are just trying to get their small businesses fully operating again. But first, the new year means […]
Posted inNews
Colorado needs to refill its now empty unemployment fund. Here’s how that will impact employers, workers.
When the notice about higher unemployment insurance premiums arrived this month from the Colorado labor department, business owner Jim Noon said he was shocked. “The surcharges all said zero,” said Noon, who owns Centennial Container in Denver. He remembered how employers’ premiums doubled and even tripled more than a decade ago as the state recovered […]
Posted inBusiness, Economy, Growth, News
What’s Working: Colorado economists share 2022 forecasts on meat, apartments, video games and more
The annual crystal ball of Colorado’s economy swirled this week as economists and industry experts shared what is in store for the new year as part of the 2022 Colorado Business Economic Outlook, produced by the University of Colorado Boulder. “We’re pretty bullish overall on the macro economy,” Richard L. Wobbekind, associate dean of business […]
Posted inBusiness, Economy, News, Politics and Government
Colorado auditor finds $73 million in “likely fraudulent” unemployment payments, including to dead people
Colorado may have paid $73 million in fraudulent unemployment benefits, with payments made to dead people, inmates and underage applicants, a state audit found, more than double the $30 million state labor officials had previously confirmed was improperly paid. “Despite the numerous steps that the department has taken to prevent and detect fraud, our audit […]
Posted inBusiness, Economy, News
What’s Working: Colorado paid $30 million in bogus unemployment claims. It could have been worse.
It probably came as a shocker when Californians learned that their state had paid out $20 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims as of October since the COVID-19 pandemic began. That’s about the same amount the Golden State has borrowed from the U.S. government to provide benefits when its own unemployment fund ran out of money […]
Posted inBusiness, Economy, News
What’s Working: Colorado was tied for nation’s 4th highest rate of job quitters in September
A lot of things changed in Colorado’s labor market in September. Pandemic unemployment ended, which cut off benefits for 107,000 unemployed workers. Some of the first vaccine mandates took effect. And Colorado went from the state with the nation’s highest rate of layoffs and job separations to the 18th highest. The drop in September was […]
Posted inBusiness, Economy, News
What’s Working: Colorado’s job recovery rate is the nation’s 10th fastest. So why is our jobless rate the 15th highest?
Colorado has come a long way since the start of the pandemic when, as with every state, the unemployment rate increased. The state’s rate jumped to 12.1% in April 2020, from 2.8% before the pandemic. The state’s jobless rate dropped to 5.4% in October, from September’s 5.6%. That, plus a bunch of other economic data, […]