Align Arapahoe Performance Dashboard

Reflects the success of the EDP’s economic development efforts.

Low – The County provides funding to the EDP, but ultimately it is the EDP that directs the economic development initiatives. This measure is also affected by external factors over which the County has very little control. For example, interest rate movements in 2022 and 2023, coupled with inflation, has reduced demand for goods and services, which in turn causes fewer new jobs to be created. We saw this especially in 2022, where the total new jobs went from 18,798 the previous year to 13,332 that year. While new jobs in the county jumped back up to 18,602 in 2023, this reflects industries such as restaurants, retail, and hospitality, as well as nursing centers adding back jobs lost during the pandemic. In addition, the structural scarcity in the current labor market is expected to continue through the rest of the decade. This is because there are not enough workers to fill all the new jobs being created through economic growth.

Greater metro Denver, including Arapahoe and Douglas Counties, is in a structurally scarce labor market because our population has not been growing fast enough to supply workers for all the new jobs being created by economic growth. For example, in November 2023, there were over 20,000 unfilled jobs in greater metro Denver. In terms of economic development, companies are a bit more hesitant to spend significant amounts of capital to expand operations when labor supply is uncertain. For this reason, external factors have affected the year-over-year number of business expansions or relocations that have happened in the region since 2021.