The state of Colorado has had a lower unemployment rate than the rest of the country throughout the recession.  Colorado Springs is no exception.  The city’s economy is primarily based around the local military installations, specifically the US Air Force Academy as well as US Army Base Fort Carson.  The local tourism sector also employs quite a few people due to the large amounts of tourists coming to town.  Colorado Springs is a gateway to many Rocky Mountain attractions including Pikes Peak.  In terms of employment there is very little diversity, which usually does not bode well for employment rates.  But in Colorado Springs’ case, this lack of diversity has helped it survive a tough economy.

Government and military jobs are extremely secure during times of economic recession.  This fact has kept much of the employment landscape of Colorado Springs intact and functioning.  There are a couple of very small, less important employment sectors in the city, and those worth mentioning are the aviation technology and other computer and IT related industry sectors.  HP is based in Colorado Springs, and provides a very large number of non-government, non-military jobs to residents in Colorado Springs as well as the surrounding localities.  There are a few other mining and transportation sector jobs in and around Colorado Springs, but not enough to really put a dent in the unemployment rate either way.  Besides, these two sectors have been hardest hit in most other states, and the same holds true for the Colorado Springs region.  There are just so many other jobs in far more secure sectors that outweigh the losses in these two smaller sectors and provide a skewed view of the true unemployment rate in Colorado Springs and Colorado itself.

During the dot com bubble, roughly from 1990 to 2000, the population of Colorado Springs grew immensely, by more than 25%.  Since the bust of the tech bubble in 1999, the population has decreased slightly and leveled off in the early 2000’s.  The chronological proximity to the tech bust has helped keep Colorado Springs out of that sector by turning many of the skilled IT and computer sector workers away in the early 2000’s.  The population that was left resembled that of the pre tech bubble population- mostly military and government workers with a few tech and tourism jobs sprinkled in.

Colorado Spring’s connection to the defense industry and more recently, a few key tech startups have given it the power it needs to sustain itself in the middle of an intense economic recession.  The region will likely continue to be nearly impervious to large-scale economic recessions as long as its economy is so closely tied to the defense and government sectors.  There are few employment opportunities outside of this sector in Colorado Springs, and the data shows that the unemployment rate may not be representational of the true rate outside the government and defense sectors.  Even so, this city has been growing consistently since the early 2000’s and likely will continue to do so as long as the US military presence in this state continues.