As expected, the President’s State of the Union address highlighted policies that create good jobs, reduce income inequality and foster economic opportunity for all. Any ideas to build out the middle class, address wage stagnation and create ladders of opportunity for all Americans can’t come a moment too soon as just released employment statistics for the states show.

 Jobs

The new jobs numbers released Tuesday show mixed results for Colorado. The state continues to plod along a positive trend. In December 2013, Colorado had 29,500 more jobs than it did in December 2007, the start of the Great Recession, and 43,900 more jobs than this same time last year. However, the largest gain, 20.2 percent since 2007, was in education and healthcare. These sectors tend to have a number of jobs with lower pay. As just one example, the average home health aid worker in Colorado makes about $12 an hour. Sectors like construction and manufacturing, which tend to have higher paying jobs for middle-skill workers, experienced the greatest declines in Colorado during the recession. 

 While a small change overall, 1.3 percent, Colorado is one of only 19 states that experienced an increase in the number of total jobs since 2007.

 Despite gains, Colorado still has a jobs deficit. The state would still need an additional 187,500 jobs for employment growth to keep pace with growth in the working age population. (Table 1)

Unemployment

After peaking at 9.1 percent in late 2010, Colorado’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.2 percent in December 2013, 72 months after the start of the recession. This is lower than the national unemployment rate of 6.7 percent but still significantly higher than when the state entered the recession in 2007 and higher than the same point in the prior two recessions. (Figure 1)

In light of these numbers, policymakers from President Obama down to all 100 of the Colorado legislators hard at work under the gold dome right now should advance ideas that focus not just on jobs but family-supporting jobs that lift up the middle class and provide economic opportunity for all.