“We’re keeping our focus on creating jobs and will let our actions speak for themselves.”
— Gov. Bill Ritter, Nov. 22, 2009
Well, since he brought up the subject.
Focus on jobs? By all means, let’s do it.
Between January 2007, when Ritter moved into the governor’s mansion, and October of this year, Colorado appears to have shed jobs in nearly every category listed on “current employment statistics” available on the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment website. The two major exceptions: “government” and “educational and health services.” Both of those categories have expanded comfortably — in each case by nearly 11 percent.
Incidentally, the government category includes local school districts, meaning most of the growth under “educational and health services” occurred in health care.
In other words, the most significant net job growth in Colorado during Ritter’s term has occurred in government and in a segment of the private economy that is heavily dependent on federal and state funding — and which nearly everyone agrees has been expanding at an unsustainable speed as a percentage of gross domestic product.
Keep that up for another decade or so and the economy of Venezuela will look good by comparison.
Now it’s obviously unfair to blame the governor for a recession that is far bigger than Colorado and which has resulted in even greater job losses in a number of other states. No doubt he’s worked hard to entice companies here.
But if a guy is going to march around touting the success of his jobs-creation program, as Ritter does, then it’s only fair to point out that the net result has been somewhat less than overwhelming. If a powerful current is sweeping you downstream from where you want to go, maybe you shouldn’t brag too much about your prowess with a paddle.
To be sure, Colorado’s employment picture seems to have improved in recent months. The state’s jobless rate has dipped to 6.9 percent, from a high of 7.8, although mainly because lots of people have stopped looking for work. More Coloradans were actually employed three years ago than today despite the fact that our population has grown.
Fortunately, while the state lost an average of 11,000 jobs a month from September 2008 to June of this year, since then the losses have shrunk to an average of 2,000 a month, the chief economist with the labor and employment department, Alexandra Hall, told me.
But what about Colorado’s business climate compared to other states? Has it improved or deteriorated during Ritter’s tenure?
Based on a review of dozens of charts and rankings in the latest volume of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.’s annual “Toward a More Competitive Colorado,” I’d say the answer is mixed. Colorado had a first-rate business climate when Ritter was elected and it remains impressive to this day, despite slippage in some categories.
From the level of entrepreneurial activity to the tax and regulatory burden, from the “new economy index” to innovation, the ratings range from good to excellent.
If Republicans expect to make hay against Ritter over the business climate, they’ll have to focus on the implications of his tax and regulatory initiatives, and the inroads of union-friendly measures during his watch.
And while they’re at it, they can have a little fun with his job-creation boasts, given where the expansion has mostly occurred.
E-mail Vincent Carroll at vcarroll@denverpost.com.
