Updated: 03/14/2011 02:28:09 PM MDT
nation’s metro areas that are recovering the
fastest from the economic recession, according
to a report released today.
Denver was among six metro areas to beat the
national rate of job creation during the fourth
quarter, growing 0.8 percent, according to the
Mountain Monitor, a report by The Brookings
Institution.
No Mountain West metro area has fully recouped
jobs lost to the recession, but Ogden, Utah; D
enver; Colorado Springs; and Albuquerque, N.
M., are closer to doing so than the top 100 metro
areas as a group.
Sluggish housing markets continued to slow the
region’s recovery. In Denver, the healthiest major
in the fourth quarter, after turning around briefly
in the third quarter.
The Brookings report follows new data that last
week said the Colorado’s economic downturn
was more severe and any recovery much weaker
than first thought.
Colorado’s unemployment rate hit 9.1 percent in
January, moving ahead of the U.S. rate for the
first time since the 2008 recession, the Colorado
Department of Labor and Employment.
The discrepency in numbers is likely because
Brookings follows metropolitan areas, rather
than using statewide figures, said Jonathan
Rothwell, senior research analyst at Brookings.
Another possibility is that Brookings report used
December figures, rather than January, Rothwell
said.
The U.S. unemployment rate has fallen from 9.7
percent in January 2010 to 9 percent this January,
while Colorado’s revised unemployment rate rose
from 8.9 percent to 9.1 percent over the same
period.
