Colorado continues to hold one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, tied with North Dakota. New numbers show the June rate held steady at 2.3 percent.
Nationally, the Associated Press reports that after five years of steady hiring, unemployment rates have fallen below 4 percent in 23 states. The numbers suggest states are at "full employment," when nearly everyone who wants a job has one.
That means that that employers are having difficulty attracting talent. New businesses are forming at a rapid clip, but it's not clear where their workers will come from.
Nearly 30,000 new businesses filed paperwork with the State of Colorado in the second quarter of this year. Existing businesses are also sticking around, with renewals up over the year. There are now more than 600,000 businesses in good standing in Colorado, according to the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business.
The researchers report this is good news for future job creation. The upside for employees is that the competition for their services should help drive up wages.
So far this year, employers added about 55,000 nonfarm jobs. The leisure and hospitality sector continues to shine, while mining and logging declined again.
And there's been a persistent divide — the fastest employment growth is concentrated in the urban core, while rural communities in the state continue to lag.
