The briefing kicked off with a moment of silence for the victims of the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing. Led by Joe Raso, president/CEO of the CSBA, the briefing covered the mission and industry focus of the CSBA. Raso started on a positive note presenting upward-trending economic indicators comparing February 2012 to February 2013, including a 2% increase in the number of jobs (5,000) and a decrease in the unemployment rate (down from 9.4% to 8.7%). The only weak spot shown was a decrease in the hotel occupancy rate.
The first part of the presentation reviewed drivers of our local economy. The biggest economic drivers were identified Department of Defense, tourism, and higher education. Defense is such a huge part of our economy ($9+ billion impact) that the CSBA has an entire division dedicated to it's development. Raso highlighted that these three drivers are dependent on decisions made outside of our region - no money from any of these industries has to be spent here. So the CSBA was shown as committed to focusing efforts to grow other economic base sectors: aerospace, sports economy, non-profits, health care, IT, local business, medical innovation and technology.
Raso noted that the primary focus of CSBA is on supporting existing industry. But the CSBA also has an outreach program to recruit businesses from other states, as can be seen in the YouTube video Colorado Springs - Hub for the Aerospace and Defense Industry.
Raso also identified areas of concern: transportation, workforce, and national issues such as sequestration and health care reform. He indicated workforce is a major concern. Raso offered that while over 600 new jobs were created in the area in the first quarter of 2013, 27,000 workers are still unemployed in the area and the CSBA recognizes a mismatch of job skills and available work. So through outreach, support of existing and local businesses, and lobbying the state and federal level the CSBA aims to achieve the mission of "serving business development needs in the region so that the rate of economic growth exceeds the rate of population growth."
Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics published the Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment Summary for the month of March 2013 (the national and state numbers were published in early April). This gives more insight into the current state of employment in our state, as the numbers show that northern Colorado is doing better than the rest of the state for employment. Colorado Springs and other areas appear to be improving a bit this year; certainly, improving over 2012 (Colorado Springs had an unemployment rate of 8.6% as of March vs. 9.9% in March 2012*). But there has been much discussion in the media about the fact that the numbers reflect the still fragile economy (Dim labor report shows US added just 88K jobs - Associated Press via agc.com), with too few job gains and a growing population of people giving up on the job hunt due to lack of real work.
"Be a positive ambassador for the region," as Joe Raso requested at the end of the briefing. That's not hard for me to do - I've lived here for many years and plan to stay for the foreseeable future. But finding work in the Pikes Peak region is currently my greatest challenge, and my greatest wish. I will keep the rose-colored glasses as I continue the hunt.
*Not seasonally adjusted
