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 includes the following insights from our Economic Analyst, Caroline Alexander:

• Overall, the labor market continues to show signs of softening with higher unemployment and slowing job posting activity. However, wages, retail sales, visitors, and real estate continue to be in the range considered stable to strong.

• The BLS benchmark revision at the end of August made national headlines as it showed that national employment was 800,000 less than previously estimated. In Colorado, the preliminary benchmark showed that employment was 72,700 less than previously estimated, or 2.5% lower. Prior year benchmarks showed a lot of change between the preliminary benchmark and the final benchmark revision so don’t be depressed yet. And this revision will not be reflected in the data until March 2025.
• Home prices resumed growth reaching new highs in May and June.

We’ll continue to update this important data on a monthly basis to help you make thoughtful business decisions.

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Special Shout Out and Opportunity!

As we wrap up our Small Business September, we wanted to invite all of our small businesses to join us in supporting the CSU Ram Good Time Gala.  The Chamber continues to see the important connection between the success of CSU and the success of our community.  This returning annual event on Friday, October 11, will include silent and live auctions, cocktails and dinner, and the induction of five Colorado State University former student-athletes into the CSU Athletics Hall of Fame.

HUTCH Sisters (the LLC that my sister and I maintain) will be donating a customized CSU Rams Athletic Jacket to the silent auction and would love for our business friends to join us in making a contribution.  Contact Carol Zick ([email protected]) on our team if you have a fun item, a few dollars or a big trip that you would like to donate!