Quick links: Colorado lost jobs | February unemployment rate | Average hourly wages | Reader poll | Business briefs

A tool that the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce rolled out three years ago to businesses to improve economic equity for low-paid workers, who were largely people of color, has essentially been scuttled. But not without some lessons learned.

Prosper CO, which the chamber launched in 2019, attracted support from several local businesses with jobs to fill. The companies also wanted to figure out if there were barriers to higher wages, especially in cases where the workforce was less diverse than the community surrounding them.

The tool, called Prosper Compass, required companies to upload their workforce demographics to measure workers based on gender and ethnicity at various wages, from under $45,000 to above $68,000. Then it created a visualization so companies could see how their workforce compared to that of the region. The idea was to move workers to higher-paying jobs because back then, making $45,000 a year in Denver was considered a “scrape-by wage.” The visual would help companies quickly see where more training would help, where support was needed, or where workers needed a promotion.

“The uptake was modest among the business community and our partners in part because we were bumping into a whole bunch of concerned HR people around privacy issues,” said J.J. Ament, who became CEO after Prosper was in operation. “I would say the software, while clever, probably didn’t achieve the scale we had hoped, but not because companies weren’t doing it, but because companies wouldn’t share it with a third party.”

Ament said it was ahead of its time, before the George Floyd murder and the pandemic and before the term DEI, short for diversity, equity and inclusion, became a trendy term that is now scorned in some circles.

“I think people confuse it with DEI efforts that came later,” Ament said. “We brought awareness long before it was sort of in popular culture.”

Some participants said Prosper was just one of several efforts to attract and retain workers. Pinnacol Assurance, which provides workers’ comp insurance, had already been working on wage equity for its lowest paid workers. When it joined the pilot program in 2021, it found that just 1.9% earned less than $45,000 that year.

The company reviews salaries every year “to ensure market competitiveness and address any discrepancies,” said Lisa Mason, associate vice president of human resources, in an email. Those efforts have helped the company retain staff — it had a 94% retention rate last year, which is several times better than the industry, according to a report that cites Deloitte data.

And even if Prosper is no longer active, “Our consistent focus on building a supportive environment hasn’t changed and has yielded positive outcomes,” she said, adding, “As a result of our investments, we’re filling the majority of our talent needs and open positions with internal candidates.”

Of course, the Denver Metro Chamber’s focus is to support businesses. The economy has changed since 2019. The labor shortage has reversed. According to job-openings data from the BLS, there were slightly more unemployed workers in Colorado for every job opening, as of December. Back when Prosper started, there were nearly two jobs for every unemployed worker.

Meanwhile, the average annual wage in the Denver metro area increased 24.8% between 2019 and 2023, which came in at $85,048, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Using the same math, the old $45,000 scrape-by wage, or 66% of Denver’s annual average wage in 2019, would be nearly $57,000 for 2023. In the same period, Denver’s minimum wage increased 55.8%. A full-time worker earning the city’s current hourly minimum of $18.81 now makes $39,125 a year, which is really a starting wage.

While it remains up to businesses to build on what they learned, the chamber has embedded lessons from Prosper into its own operation, keeping job openings broad, making sure there are career paths for entry-level workers and providing more workforce development.

“We learned that it’s not the job itself. It’s where you are in your career path. If you’re a ticket taker at a movie theater (and) you’re a part-time college student, that’s a fantastic job. But if you’re a single mom of three, not so much,” Ament said. “It made us realize that categorizing something as a good job or bad job was taking us down the wrong path. It’s how we build skills, credentials and opportunity so that you have a job that is good for you.”

Colorado lost jobs and workers in February. Wages were up.

Colorado employers reported a drop of 8,900 jobs from January to February, a decline partly attributed to January being worse than first announced. After more employers responded to surveys that month about their workforce, the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised January numbers to a gain of 500 jobs, instead of 3,900 new jobs.

Some of the losses were blamed on the King Soopers grocery workers’ strike last month. The nearly two-week strike involved 10,000 workers primarily in the Denver metro area and Pueblo. While employees returned to their jobs, there was no contract but an agreement to pause for 100 days and get back to negotiating.

Grocery workers are counted in the trade, transportation and utilities sector, which lost 11,000 jobs in February — “by far its worst month since COVID layoffs as the industry grapples with uncertainty in regional and global trading,” wrote Cole Anderson, a research analyst at the conservative Common Sense Institute in a report.

But Tim Wonhof, an economist at the state labor department, said that the grocery strike “inordinately impacted” the numbers. “We expect a return to normal estimates in March 2025,” he wrote in an email.

Other economists were also not amused.

“The Feb. 2025 total employment was only 500 greater than a year ago. Ugh,” said Broomfield economist Gary Horvath in an email. “At the moment, the chances of a recession are about 40%.”

Interestingly, the government sector added 1,400 jobs in February, a month in which the Trump administration began laying off probationary workers in federal agencies nationwide and in Colorado, including forestry workers at the Interior Department, and weather forecasters and researchers at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The state labor department began tracking federal worker layoffs based on claims that showed the last employer was a federal agency. Most of the 665 federal-worker unemployment claims were made in February, totalling 487. Last week, 14 new claims came in, according to the labor department, which is tracking new federal worker claims in an online dashboard.

Wonhof said that government workers include state and local government employees. Federal workers make up the smallest portion of government workers.

➔ ICYMI: Growing government workers union holds rally outside of EPA’s downtown Denver offices. The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of federal workers in the nation, is organizing protests and filing lawsuits to keep federal workers in their jobs >> Read story

Other notable jobs data

• Average hourly wages increased 8.4% from a year ago to $40.31, which was 12.2% higher than the U.S. average hourly wage of $35.93.
• Colorado’s unemployment rate was unchanged from January, at 4.7% for February. The U.S. rate increased one-tenth of a point to 4.1%.
• Every metro area in the state saw an increase in February unemployment:
  • Boulder, 5%, up from 4.7% in January
  • Colorado Springs, 5.3%, from 5%
  • Denver, 5.2%, from 4.9%
  • Fort Collins, 5.1, from 4.8%
  • Grand Junction, 5.6%, from 5.4%
  • Greeley, 5.6%, from 5.2%
  • Pueblo, at 6.8%, from 6.6%
• More Coloradans were unemployed, increasing to 155,300, up 2,500 from January.
• The number of Coloradans who are employed fell by 4,000 to 3,127,800.

Sun economy stories you may have missed

➔ Northern Colorado towns on the hook for $100M reservoir settlement bill “couldn’t be happier” with agreement. The hard-won environmental agreement will bring major changes to the stressed Cache la Poudre River, revamping historic farm canals, adding more water for fish, and for people >> Read story

➔ Colorado lawmakers finalize budget proposal. Here’s what they cut to close $1.2B gap — and what they didn’t. The cuts will enable the state to absorb the rising costs of Medicaid and fully fund K-12 for another year >> Read story

➔ Colorado may let utilities pay millions into home insurance fund in exchange for less wildfire liability. The home reinsurance idea, which is unique to Colorado, aims to reduce private insurers’ financial risk and therefore drive down premiums >> Read story

➔ Sundance Film Festival is officially relocating to Boulder from Utah. Boulder beat out proposals from Atlanta, Cincinnati, Louisville, Kentucky and Santa Fe >> Read story

➔ Trump tariffs, shipping fees could take a big bite out of Colorado’s wheat and potatoes industry. Growers and ranchers are watching Mexico — their biggest buyer — for retaliation, but say proposed fees on export shipping could cut deeply >> Read story

➔ Colorado is losing $250 million in federal funding for health services because of DOGE decision. A spokesperson for Colorado’s Behavioral Health Administration said it was implementing the president’s “Department of Government Efficiency” cost efficiency initiative >> Read story

➔ Fast, walkable transit for metro Denver would cost $420 million a year for a decade, study says. Alliance to Transform Transportation has a plan to provide 2 million metro Denver residents with buses running every 15 minutes, but where the funding could come from is still a mystery >> Read story

➔ Colorado overcharged businesses $5 million for unemployment insurance last year. It’s getting refunded. Adjustments to the state’s unemployment technology are still underway with refunds expected this summer >> Read story

Take the reader poll: Economic chaos or no?

In case you missed the poll last week, we’re wondering if you feel like there are fewer jobs out there, based on Labor Department revisions that resulted in fewer jobs added in Colorado last year. Feel any different? Take the reader poll to help give us a sense of what Coloradans are feeling.

>> Take it: cosun.co/WWchaos (thanks!)

Other working bits

➔ Edwards tops list of for-sale properties with HOA fees. It may not be too surprising for Coloradans to learn that the town of Edwards is full of homes for sale that come with a homeowners association fee. But landing at the nation’s No. 1 spot? According to Realtor.com, Edwards rules. Last year, 89.9% of the for-sale listings for Edwards, which is located near multiple ski resorts, came with HOA dues. The median monthly fee of $525 was also the highest. Cities in Florida took three of the top 10 spots. >> See report

➔ Denver Auditor’s Office recovered $2 million in wages owed to workers in 2024. Last year, the Denver City Council granted subpoena power to Denver Labor, which is the division of the city’s Auditor’s Office that investigates wage theft complaints among private employers. The office issued four subpoenas, including at two strip clubs, resulting in ordering Diamond Cabaret and Rick’s Cabaret to pay $14 million in back pay and penalties to workers.The auditor’s 2024 wage theft report is now available. >> View report

➔ Mesa County’s month of job events. The Mesa County Workforce Center is hosting a month’s worth of job-seeker activities, starting with a session on creating a resume April 8, tips on interviewing April 9 and the Grand Valley Job Fair on April 24. >> Details

Got some economic news or business bits Coloradans should know? Tell us: cosun.co/heyww

Thanks for sticking with me for this week’s report. As always, share your 2 cents on how the economy is keeping you down or helping you up at cosun.co/heyww. ~ tamara

Miss a column? Catch up:

What’s Working is a Colorado Sun column about surviving in today’s economy. Email tamara@coloradosun.com with stories, tips or questions. Read the archive, ask a question at cosun.co/heyww and don’t miss the next one by signing up at coloradosun.com/getww.

Support this free newsletter and become a Colorado Sun member: coloradosun.com/join

Corrections & Clarifications

Notice something wrong? The Colorado Sun has an ethical responsibility to fix all factual errors. Request a correction by emailing corrections@coloradosun.com.