Fourth edition of Competitiveness Study released
Annual benchmark study examines competitive factors related to economic growth
In the fourth edition of Toward a More Competitive Colorado, the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation (Metro Denver EDC) today reports its annual benchmarking of Colorado’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities for future job growth.
First published in 2005, Toward a More Competitive Colorado is the foremost effort to compare Colorado’s competitive position against the other 49 states.
Highlights and challenges from the fourth edition report:
Highlights:
• First in students scoring at the highest levels of ACT and SAT college-entrance exams
• Second in Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants
• Third-highest percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree
• Fourth in venture capital investments, fifth in creating new companies
• Fifteenth in reading proficiency of 8th grade students
• Nation’s lowest obesity rate
• Third-lowest in cancer and heart disease deaths, fourth-lowest in diabetes deaths
Challenges:
• Ranked 36th out of 38 states in funding for Pre-K education
• Ranked 32nd in high school graduation rates
• Fifth-lowest in K-12 education as a percent of personal income
• Third-lowest in state and local per capita support for higher education
• Ranked 14th lowest percentage of population with health insurance
• Tenth-highest state for populations living in "non-attainment" air pollution areas
• Eighth-lowest in federal transportation funding per capita
As the Metro Denver EDC has reported since the inception of Toward a More Competitive Colorado, the Metro Denver EDC remains deeply concerned with the state’s lack of funding for higher education and the condition of the state's transportation system. There continues to be no appreciable improvement in these two building blocks of successful and sustainable economic development.
This year, the report noted several improvements in our position. However, these are single year events. Whether this data continues to move in a positive direction will only be proven in subsequent years. One area where the state continues to make steady progress is in job growth. Colorado was among the top 10 states in job creation in 2007, while in 2003, the state ranked 48th. As 2008 comes to an uncertain close, Colorado is expected to finish the year with job growth of 1.5 percent, while the nation struggles with growth rates at 0.2 percent.
In the report, the Metro Denver EDC also touts two industries that have and will continue to shepherd economic growth in the state--aerospace and energy. Aerospace pays the highest average wages while the carbon-based energy industry generates over $25 billion in economic impact, with $2 billion in downtown Denver alone. ConocoPhillips’ decision to locate its world training center and its new renewable energy research and development efforts in Louisville further buoyed Colorado’s reputation as a center of intellectual capital in the nation’s energy industry.
However, in the face the current financial crisis and what will certainly be a downturn in the U.S. economy, the Metro Denver EDC is looking at Colorado's past economic performance to forecast how the state will weather ongoing economic challenges.
The report notes that after 25 years of efforts to diversify the Colorado economy, cushioning it from economic squalls, and creating a technological economy, we will now reap the success of these efforts. While many portions of the nation will suffer dramatic economic upheaval, the Metro Denver region can expect to see modest growth in 2009, but will still outperform the national economy.
And in light of the nation's economic challenges, concerted economic development efforts in Colorado will be critically important for the state's future. "During such times, many opportunities will be available for Colorado to expand its competitive position," said Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver EDC. "While other states will shrink away from positioning themselves for the inevitable rebound, states that push into new markets, reposition their industry clusters for future growth, and invest in key infrastructure elements will see far greater growth when the national economic recovery begins.