Colorado’s labor markets remained tight last year, but not tight enough to trigger wage gains able to keep pace with escalating living costs.
Voters stepped into the gap, approving Amendment 70 to lift the state’s minimum wage from its current level of $8.31 an hour to $12 an hour by 2020. The measure passed despite opponents calling it a one-size-fits-all approach that would harm rural economies and small businesses.
After starting the year at 3.2 percent, Colorado’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate bounced up and down. But by November, it was back at a tight 3.2 percent and help wanted signs were plentiful.
Normally, rates that low would push up wages as employers compete for workers. But an annual survey of employers found plans for wage hikes averaging around 2.8 percent, about the pace of inflation and in line with gains in 2014 and 2015.
That suggests more slack than the official unemployment rate is showing. Participation rates show a larger number of Colorado workers remain on the sidelines, not taking the lower-paying service jobs that replaced higher-paying positions available before the 2008 downturn.
One big question at the start of the year was how the worsening slump in oil and gas prices would impact the state. Weld, Adams and Denver counties fell from the top rankings for job growth, but many displaced petroleum workers found other opportunities, sparing them from long stints collecting unemployment benefits.
Some of the most severe labor shortages in the state are in the construction trades, leaving Front Range communities unable to keep pace with population growth and pushing up housing costs. That in turn is straining household finances, especially for low-wage workers.
Read the rest of the top business stories of 2016
- Amazon and Colorado make peace
- Vail buys Whistler Blackcomb
- Voters lift minimum wage
- Towns get creative to solve high country housing crisis
- Chipotle’s less-than-healthy recovery
- Internet shakes up how we watch TV
- A new era for Molson Coors
- R.I.P. Sports Authority
- Cybersecurity firms gain investment as hacks proliferate
- Overtourism becomes an issue
- Denver home prices stay hot, but rent gains cooling
- Energy outlook brightens
![U.S. companies would no longer be able to bar employees from taking jobs with competitors under a rule approved by a federal agency Tuesday, though the rule is sure to be challenged in court. The Federal Trade Commission voted Tuesday 3-2 to ban measures known as […]](https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/FTC_Noncompete_Agreements_12562.jpg?w=525 "U.S. companies would no longer be able to bar employees from taking jobs with competitors under a rule approved by a federal agency Tuesday, though the rule is sure to be challenged in court. The Federal Trade Commission voted Tuesday 3-2 to ban measures known as […]")
