Colorado economy "growing but slowing" amid record number of new business filings

The University of Colorado Boulder and the Colorado Secretary of State's Office presented new findings with regard to Colorado's economy on Thursday. They say it's growing but slowing.

"There's an era of entrepreneurship that still exists in the state," said Brian Lewandowski, Executive Director of the Leeds Business Research Division. "Colorado was one of nine states that recorded an increase in the number of job openings. Most states recorded a decrease. Even though we had a slowing employment growth, we still have a very high number of jobs in the state."

Many of those jobs, leaders say, are attributed to recent business growth.

"Coloradans opened up businesses in a huge portion over the last year," said Secretary of State Jena Griswold.

The latest report for the first quarter of 2023 shows that Colorado recorded 55,787 new entity filings, posting the largest quarter in the report's history. Filings increased year-over-year by 27.6% and 14.3% quarter-over-quarter.

Due to the implementation of HB22-1001, the "Colorado Business Fee Relief Act," in July 2022, starting a business is $1 right now instead of $50.

"With the fee reduction that the secretary's office implemented we saw a surge in business filings," said Lewandowski.

"I do think it's helpful to create this atmosphere of allowing people to launch their businesses," said Griswold.

To read a full breakdown of the data, click here: https://www.colorado.edu/business/sites/default/files/attached-files/sos-q123.pdf