Boulder’s Economic Forecast 2018

The Boulder economy recorded historic achievements in 2017 that were outlined Wednesday night at the “Boulder Economic Forecast” presentation hosted by the Boulder Chamber of Commerce. KGNU’s Roz Brown says the 11th annual event featured a key note address by economist Dr. Richard Wobbekind, as well as Elizabeth Garner, Chief Demographer for the State of Colorado.

Boulder’s employment was at record high levels in 2017 with unemployment at record lows. The city was also ranked number one nationally in the Bloomberg Brain Concentration Index which tracks business formation as well as employment and education in the sciences, engineering and mathematics.

Rising house prices continue to be an issue in Boulder, while wage increases have been lackluster. Two thirds of new jobs that are being created are in industries that pay below average wages.  The two highest wage areas are management of companies and enterprises (corporate headquarters) and mining and logging (natural resources.) Wobbekind says that as a state we are continuing to lose corporate headquarters which are the highest paid jobs.

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