Last month, the Colorado Chamber of Commerce published a report on corporate relocation, expansion, and site selection that identifies 98 firms and 13,607 known jobs lost to businesses choosing against operating in Colorado since 2019.[i] Other sources, like Business Employment Dynamics (BDM) data from the BLS, also demonstrate the severity of corporate flight from Colorado, especially relative to other U.S. states, alongside high closure rates and declines in new business formation.[ii] Across 2024, the latest year from which complete data are available, Colorado’s rate of net new establishments per capita ranked 48th in the country, representing the largest relative employment loss of any state. Although trends in BDM data can be very volatile over time, these findings clearly indicate high costs of doing business in Colorado and low confidence among business owners in the state’s economic prospects.
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