Before we jump into new data for the region, I wanted to take a moment to shout out to two of our community members:  Respite Care and The Matthews House.  Both organizations had great events last week to announce exciting expansions of service and facilities in Northern Colorado.

Respite Care announced their new home and a capital campaign: a new building will be centrally located in Timnath with I-25 access on the border of Weld and Larimer Counties. Once they open their new doors, their 65-child capacity will steadily expand to more than 150 over time. Respite Care noted that:  “20,000 square feet will give us the physical room to grow and will also allow us to add new enrichment programs, day camps, specialized classrooms by age group, enlarged common spaces adapted to meet diverse needs, and enhanced sensory, safety, and communication features. This will mean more fun, learning, and growth for kids ages 6 weeks to 18 years old, and more peace of mind for their grateful loved ones. As you can see, an investment in Respite Care is an investment in Northern Colorado. We are building a better community.”

The Mathews House hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for The Landing, the new regional youth shelter set to open later this year in Loveland.  They hosted a gathering of over 150 passionate supporters, including enthusiastic youth participants who helped them to “break the wall” to kick off the renovation process.

I invite you to learn more about both of these organizations and the tremendous impact that they are having on the lives of families across Northern Colorado!

Now It’s time again for our monthly update to the Economic Tracker. Your Fort Collins Area Chamber, working with other economic development and business support organizations across the region created a tool to track the economic recovery in Northern Colorado.

This valuable resource is a set of indicators that represent critical aspects of the Larimer and Weld County economies, is based on data that is accessible in a useable format and is updated frequently with little lag time. The Economic Tracker provides great insight into the impact of the pandemic and recession on Northern Colorado.

The most recent update to the Tracker as well as a 2023 Year in Review for the Tracker includes the following insights from our Economic Analyst, Caroline Alexander:

A big note here: in March, BLS released revised data for 2023 and now the data show Weld County recovering to the 2019 average level of employment around March of 2023. The newest numbers show Weld County’s losses in Mining, Logging, and Construction (oil & gas) were compensated for with gains in professional and business services.

Overall, it seems like the regional economy is normalizing or softly landing. The labor market is softening – unemployment is a little bit higher, job posting activity is returning back to a more sustainable level, and the labor force is growing. The housing market and construction activity slowed in response to higher interest rates but is picking up again. Tourism has grown but is settling back to 2019 levels of occupancy.