Audio Script
Colorado economy continues to outdo nation in GDP
July 16, 听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Richard Wobbekind
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Colorado鈥檚 economy continues to outperform the nation in gross domestic product, or GDP - growing by 4.7 percent in 2014 compared to 2.2 percent growth nationally, according to a report from CU-Boulder鈥檚 Leeds School of Business.
Leeds economist Richard Wobbekind (Wah-bah-kin) says Colorado is very strong in most sectors.
CUT 1听 鈥淕DP is strong. Our personal income is strong and a lot of the sectors are doing very well. Agriculture - the rain has really helped agriculture in terms of a lot of ranchers are rebuilding herds right now. And of course the more grass lands the better it is. (:17) Leisure and hospitality 鈥� the tourism industry 鈥� has been very strong. Good traffic through DIA. Private education and private health 鈥� very strong job growth there. Some of it probably related to the Affordable Care Act.鈥� (:30)
Also very strong is job growth and should hit the numbers forecasted last December in the annual Colorado Business Economic Outlook Forum.
CUT 2 鈥淥ur forecast number released in December is very, very close to where we are right now. At this point we鈥檙e pretty comfortable at staying at the same job level 鈥� a little over 61,000 jobs.鈥� (:13)
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Wobbekind says one of the main reasons the state鈥檚 GDP was so strong is due to the oil and gas industry. But, he says, since gas and oil prices have dropped Colorado鈥檚 GDP growth for 2015 will slow but will still be higher than the national GDP.
CUT 3 鈥淚 think that the state will continue to exceed the national but it won鈥檛 have that big energy component as part of it. I suspect state GDP instead of being high fours is going to come down to a number like three, three-and-a-half. (:12) And this year the national number will be down in the twos again for 2015 when the year is completed. So this will be a year again where we exceed the national, particularly in terms of output. 鈥� (:27)
He says the only area that continues to show a loss in jobs is the information sector and that鈥檚 most likely due to advancements in technology.
CUT 4 鈥淲hen you look across the board there is only one sector that鈥檚 actually losing employment and that鈥檚 information. The sector that has print media, broadcast media and so on and that area continues to consolidate in terms of the number of employees even though output continues to grow. It鈥檚 just a sector that has been dramatically affected by technology.鈥� (:24)
The full report can be found by visiting the Leeds Business Research Division website at .
-CU-
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