Third edition of Competitiveness Study released
Annual benchmark study examines competitive factors related to economic growth
In the third edition of Toward a More Competitive Colorado released January 7, 2008, the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation (Metro Denver EDC) released its annual benchmarking of Colorado’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities for future job growth.
First published in 2005, Toward a More Competitive Colorado was the foremost effort to compare Colorado’s competitive position against the other 49 states.
Highlights from the third-edition report:
- Ranked first in the nation for high-tech employment for the past seven consecutive years, Colorado slipped to third in 2005, despite its exit from the post-9/11 high-tech fallout
- Third-most highly educated state in percentage of college graduates in 2006, down from second in 2003
- Fourth-highest for venture capital investments
- Eighth-most productive workforce, down from seventh in 2000
- Tenth-highest in patents, down from ninth in 2003
- Lowest obesity rate in the nation and ranks second for physical activity; however, the state’s obesity rates are rising at the same rate as the rest of the nation
- Third-lowest in heart disease, third-lowest in diabetes deaths (improved from fourth in 2003), and fourth-lowest in cancer deaths (improved from sixth in 2002)
- 12.7 percent of Colorado’s budget was dedicated to transportation in 1980 and dropped to 6.2 percent in 2007
- Fifteenth-worst among the 50 states for "highway performance"
Toward a More Competitive Colorado’s findings continue to point to areas where the state is competitively challenged. While an array of high-quality jobs await qualified Colorado citizens, the state’s lower-paying, lower-skilled jobs will continue to disappear. To remain competitive in a global economy, Colorado must increase its commitment to growing and sustaining a "knowledge-based economy."
This commitment requires continued investments in our people–our human capital. Unfortunately, Colorado finds itself consistently in the lower quartile in these investments. Our regional competitors have made progress at much faster rates than Colorado, eroding the significant competitive advantages that Colorado has historically enjoyed.
"After analyzing seven years of data, we are quite concerned that Colorado’s competitive position is eroding and is in jeopardy due to lack of sufficient investments in higher education, transportation, and healthcare," said Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver EDC.
The report also includes in-depth studies on the six industry clusters that are driving job growth in Metro Denver-aerospace, aviation, bioscience, energy, financial services, and information technology-software.
Since the initial release of Toward a More Competitive Colorado, improvements in areas related to job growth and expansion of our clusters have occurred. In 2002-2003, Colorado ranked near the bottom of all 50 states for job growth, at 48th. However, the state is gaining ground quickly, ranking 14th for job growth in 2005-2006. Also, the state ranked third in creating new companies and was the eighth-fastest growing state for population in 2006.