Quick links: Business economic outlook | Colorado trade partners | What 2,333 Coloradans think | June unemployment rate drops | Renters need $36.79 an hour

Higher tariffs, or the threat of them, on global imports and exports have had an impact in Colorado.

But you may not know it from an initial glance at the global trade data. In the first five months this year, the value of all Colorado exports grew 10.5% to $4.84 billion, compared with the same period last year. Imports fell 3.4% to $6.8 billion.

Behind the change, however, there were steeper drops with the state’s top trade partners. Exports to China fell 30% while imports fell 15% in the first five months. Imports from Mexico were down 11.1%, while exports stayed flat. Canadian imports dropped 0.7%, though after new tariffs went into effect in April, imports fell 14.2% in May.

Colorado isn’t a big export state and the gains are “modest,” said Brian Lewandowski, executive director of the University of Colorado Leeds Business Research Division. Last year, the state ranked 33rd in the U.S. for exports and 49th based on per capita. The impact of Trump’s tariffs hasn’t hit the state as much as the rest of the nation.

But, he added, companies are very concerned.

In the latest Leeds Business Confidence Index, local business leaders shared a pretty dim outlook of what they’re facing in the third quarter, leading to a low 37.9 points on a scale of 1 to 100 with 50 being neutral.

While an improvement from the second quarter’s 31.9, the survey of 189 executives was still negative and it was the fifth-lowest quarterly outlook in 23 years.

The confidence level of local business leaders remained negative for third quarter due to the threat of tariffs, according to the quarterly Leeds Business Confidence Index.

“Tariffs were noted as a primary reason for sentiment by 44% of respondents,” Lewandowski said in an email. “What we don’t know from the survey is which businesses are directly impacted by tariffs, or those who are generally responding to the policy.”

The plans by the Trump administration to hike taxes on foreign imports only to change or pause them seems to be hurting businesses the most, said World Trade Center Denver CEO Karen Gerwitz. They’re feeling numb from the whiplash of on-again, off-again tariffs.

“I feel like it’s the confusion that is out there right now. It’s real,” Gerwitz said. “All I’m saying is that companies are struggling right now with the uncertainty so it’s hard to predict anything. It’s hard to enter into contracts. It’s hard to even decide what to do with your supply chain when you don’t know what the price is going to be.”

More trade data

Not all countries that trade with Colorado saw a decline. Italy had one of the highest gains in Colorado exports, growing 5,700% in the first five months this year.

According to the World Trade Center’s analysis, Colorado’s biggest export to Italy was “Polypeptide Protein & Glycoprotein Hormones & Derivatives,” which can be used in collagen supplements to improve skin health. Some local companies that dabble in organic chemicals include Gates Biomanufacturing Facility on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Gates officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this week, Gov. Jared Polis issued an executive order to start documenting the impact. The state’s labor, trade and agriculture departments must start tracking the data and share an estimate by the end of August.

The Trump administration’s tariffs of 30% or more are expected to go into effect on Aug. 1 on goods from Canada, Mexico and Europe. Tariffs on imports from China have remained in effect, though they were scaled back from the 145% Trump ordered in April.

➔ Related: U.S. inflation continues to rise with the latest report showing that consumer prices rose 2.7% in June from a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Blame the “chaotic rollout of tariffs” and “immigration crackdown (that) is beginning to weigh on jobs growth,” said a story in the Wall Street Journal. Still, the story notes, the economy is doing better than economists had expected. The BLS reports Denver’s inflation rate every other month so July data will be out next month. >> U.S. inflation

How 2,333 Coloradans feel about the state

In the sixth annual Pulse Poll released this week by the Colorado Health Foundation, the top economic concerns among citizens had to do with “government/politics,” with 32% of respondents naming it the top concern.

It was the first time politics garnered the top vote, and received three times more responses than last year.

Concerns about government and politics were on the top of Coloradans’ minds in this year’s Pulse Poll by the Colorado Health Foundation.

“This marks a departure from what we’ve seen in past years,” said Dave Metz, the pollster for Pulse and president of FM3 Research, during a news conference. “In that top category of government/politics, we’ve never even had 20% of respondents who named that as their top concern.”

There were only three other times a topic hit 20% or higher and that was climate-change related concerns in 2021 and 2022, and the cost of living or inflation in 2022.

In a distant second and third place were the cost of living and housing affordability. Concerns about immigration declined to a mere 1%.

Agree with the 2,333 Coloradans living around the state who took the poll between April 19 and May 18? Take a look at the report yourself. >> View report

Sun economy stories you may have missed

➔ One big, beautiful special session? Colorado lawmakers still aren’t sure. The Republican federal budget law will have massive impacts on state finances, but most of them aren’t immediate >> Read story

➔ Planned Parenthood resumes seeing Medicaid patients after funding blocked by federal budget bill. The organization won a temporary restraining order that allows it to resume services. Hundreds of appointments were canceled during the past two weeks, leading to a flood of “desperate voices.” >> Read story

➔ Colorado health insurers propose huge price increases following passage of GOP’s federal spending bill. Insurance carriers asked for a 28% increase in prices, on average. State regulators must still approve the request. >> Read story

➔ Want to buy an electric vehicle in Colorado? Do it now, before tax credits expire. A $7,500 federal tax credit expires Sept. 30, and Colorado’s own credit plummets Jan. 1. Now is the time to go electric if you can swing it. >> Read story

➔ Colorado’s housing crisis won’t be fixed by zoning alone. A new report shows why. Advocates launched a new housing consortium in March that hopes to tackle the dizzying array of factors that drive up housing costs >> Read story

➔ Colorado’s property insurer of last resort is now covering more than two dozen families. The Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan, or FAIR Plan, began accepting applications from residential property owners on April 10 >> Read story

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Other working bits

Colorado employers added 10,600 jobs in the past 12 months, but most were in the government sector. Private employers in the construction and wholesale trade industries lost jobs. (Colorado Department of Labor and Employment

➔ June unemployment rate falls a bit. Approximately, 3,400 fewer Coloradans were unemployed in June compared with May, causing the state’s unemployment rate to drop one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.7%. That was still higher than the U.S. rate of 4.1%, which was unchanged from May.

But job growth continues to slow. Employers added fewer jobs in June, losing 1,500 since May. May’s estimate was also revised downward to a loss of 2,400 jobs instead of an increase of 3,400. The revisions happen when businesses and government agencies return their monthly surveys on jobs and salaries late. The state had 2,984,600 jobs in June.

In the past 12 months, employers have added 10,600 jobs, though nearly all were by government agencies. That’s a meager job growth rate of 0.4%, and below the national rate of 1.1%. >> See Colorado’s June jobs report

➔ Colorado renters need to earn $36.79 an hour to afford two-bedroom apartment. That minimum, or $76,523 a year, will get a family into a modest rental at fair market rent of $1,913 a month in the state, according to a new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. A person earning minimum wage would need to work 82 hours a week, said Cathy Alderman, a spokesperson for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

At least rents have been dropping in the Denver metro area. ApartmentList, which tracks regional rents, said July rents are down 5.4% from a year ago but 0.4% higher than June. The median rent on a two-bedroom apartment was $1,866 in July.

Alderman’s point, though, is that even higher-paid personal care aides, office clerks and truck drivers aren’t at the $36 minimum, and now federal assistance is at risk due to federal budget cuts sought by the Trump administration. “Although thousands of people work to emerge from homelessness each year, even more fall into it because there simply isn’t enough affordable housing,” she said in a news release. >> View report

➔ Auto sales are up, but declines expected for rest of the year. The Colorado Automobile Dealers Association announced that new vehicle registrations are up 8.3% in the first half of the year compared with last year, and that’s better than the national rate of 6.4%. But higher prices due to tariffs has clouded the future outlook and CADA predicts registrations to drop 8.8% for the second half of the year. So far in 2025, Nissans and Cadillacs are the most popular brands, while Tesla continued to tank in the second quarter with registrations down 7.8%. >> View CADA report

➔ Denver Zoo gets (mostly) thumbs up from auditor. Denver auditor Timothy M. O’Brien applauded the zoo for minimizing security risks when it comes to its IT infrastructure after finding that the animal house found just 13 out of 882 pieces of IT equipment outdated. That’s an unusual outcome, apparently, with O’Brien saying so in a news release: “It’s not often we complete audits where an auditee is doing nearly all the right things,” he said. >> View audit

Got some economic news or business bits Coloradans should know? Tell us: cosun.co/heyww

Thanks for sticking with me for this week’s report. As always, share your 2 cents on how the economy is keeping you down or helping you up at cosun.co/heyww. ~ tamara

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What’s Working is a Colorado Sun column about surviving in today’s economy. Email tamara@coloradosun.com with stories, tips or questions. Read the archive, ask a question at cosun.co/heyww and don’t miss the next one by signing up at coloradosun.com/getww.

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Type of Story: News

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.