The median household income in Colorado, when adjusted for inflation, fell 2.17 percent from 1999 to 2003 ($50,339 to $49,248), according to a new study from the State Science & Technology Institute of Westerville, Ohio, using Census Bureau data.
Only five states and the District of Columbia posted gains in median household income during the five-year period, the institute said, with median household income for the U.S. overall declining 3.67 percent.
Gary Horvath of the Business Research Division of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado called the drop “distressing.”
“This illustrates the severity of the recent downturn and how it affected Colorado and the U.S.,” he said.
“It also points out that the downturn affected both blue- and white-collar workers. Many high-paying jobs were lost, in particular Colorado jobs in telecom and manufacturing,” Horvath said.
Wyoming posted a 0.34 percent income gain, ranking it fourth among the states.
Horvath said that was probably due to demand for the state’s natural resources.
Tucker Hart Adams, a regional economist with U.S. Bank in Denver, said the data were “a near-peak to near-trough comparison.”
“It begins near the end of the longest boom in the nation’s history,” she said. “Job declines lasted from February 2001 through May 2003 – 27 months.
“It’s exactly what you’d expect to happen, spanning a recession and the weakest jobs recovery in 50 years,” she said.
