Colorado
Colorado’s workforce has been shrinking since September — and that could spell trouble
Buried deep within an otherwise routine state employment report for December is a troubling mystery. Colorado is starting to see an alarmingly large number of workers go missing.
Colorado’s labor force shrank 0.6% year-over-year last month, a monthly decline matching the pace seen during the Great Recession. After flatlining in August, the labor force, those working or looking for work, has been retreating since September. For the year, 20,280 people vanished from its ranks, mostly in the fourth quarter.
That has never happened outside a severe recession or economic shock like the COVID-19 pandemic.
From April 2020 to March 2021, workers removed themselves from the labor force in record numbers. Giving up a paycheck to avoid landing on a respirator seemed like a fair trade-off to many older workers during the pandemic. The defections were unprecedented, triggering a 3.4% drop in the labor force in July 2020. But they were short-lived. People returned once restrictions eased and vaccines became available.
Another 12-month stretch of a draining labor pool occurred from September 2009 to August 2010 during the housing crash and Great Recession. People couldn’t easily replace the jobs they lost. Many gave up trying. That contributed to annual declines of 0.7% and 0.6% during the worst months.
The mother of all Colorado labor force deflations happened from July 1985 to June 1989. It started during a severe oil and gas downturn, which was followed by a lending crisis, which was followed by a collapse in commercial real estate and home values. It was such an ugly period economically that companies and people packed their bags and left the state in droves.
The year-over-year drops reached a high of 0.9% and 0.8% in 1989, but most months ran lower, with some positive months mixed in. But all those Colorado natives kept graduating from high school and college. The unemployment rose to as high as 8.4% in December 1985 and January 1986. The workers who stayed gutted it out. Better times returned in the 1990s.
There is no health crisis keeping people home, no recession triggering major layoffs and no collapse in a pillar of the state economy. So what might be driving the decline in the number of workers?
The easy out is to blame statistical noise. The household survey — used to determine the size of the labor force and the unemployment rate — is subject to revisions. The federal government shutdown in October might have mucked things up. Below-average snowfalls might have reduced demand for resort workers. The list goes on.
But the decline is large and accelerating, and it started before the shutdown. It likely reflects a real shift, said Brian Lewandowski, executive director of the Business Research Division at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder.
“I think the current softening could be a mixture of both the market (demographics) and policy,” he said.
One demographic piece involves more workers retiring. The mirror doesn’t lie. Colorado’s population is getting older. The long-predicted silver tsunami may finally be sucking workers out of the labor pool. But aging is a slow-moving trend, not akin to an earthquake.
Migration is a more plausible force behind what is happening. Colorado lost 12,100 more people than it gained from other states in the year through June 30, according to a population update Tuesday from the U.S. Census Bureau.
That trend may have accelerated in the second half of the year based on what is happening to the labor force. Colorado’s net domestic migration is down sharply since the pandemic. Blame higher housing costs and fewer job opportunities. More longtime residents appear to be picking up and moving out. Last year, Colorado became one of five states with significantly more outbound than inbound moves, according to a survey by United Van Lines.
From the reopening of the economy following the pandemic through 2024, Colorado saw big increases in the number of people arriving from other countries. Migration to Colorado historically has been 80% domestic and 20% international. That ratio flipped this decade, according to the State Demography Office.
In the 12 months through June 30, the state’s net international migration of 15,356 was enough to offset the loss of 12,100 domestically last year. The combined number was weak, but it wasn’t negative. For the last several years, it appears international migration helped mask the weakness the state was facing on the domestic side.
And the mask has been removed. This is where policy shock comes into play.
Voters, upset with the immigration surge and inflation, elected Donald Trump to office. His administration has moved quickly to shut down flows across the border and remove illegal immigrants. The administration has also tightened down on legal channels of immigration, requiring more vetting and in-person interviews, delaying application processing and even reversing earlier green card approvals.
“The slowdown in U.S. population growth is largely due to a historic decline in net international migration, which dropped from 2.7 million to 1.3 million in the period from July 2024 through June 2025,” said Christine Hartley, assistant division chief for Estimates and Projections at the Census Bureau, in a news release Tuesday. “With births and deaths remaining relatively stable compared to the prior year, the sharp decline in net international migration is the main reason for the slower growth rate we see today.”
Lewandowski notes that the labor force shrank in a dozen states in December, and 19 states had growth rates below 1%. Wyoming led the country on the downside with a 2.5% decline. Vermont and Wisconsin also dropped more than 2%. Illinois, Virginia and Connecticut had declines above 1%.
“I certainly think the lack of international migration has to be playing a role as we don’t have replacements,” said Richard Wobbekind, a senior economist with the Business Research Division, of the shrinking labor force.
More older workers are retiring each year. Years of a subdued birth rate mean fewer young adults are entering the workforce. Colorado has become less attractive to young adults living in other states, and with each passing year, there are fewer of them to recruit. Now immigration has been throttled.
That may explain why the state’s unemployment rate has managed to drop significantly despite fairly weak job growth. It fell from 4.6% a year ago to 3.8%. Normally, a falling unemployment rate is associated with a strong job market. But job gains are a little over a third of their historical pace since 1990. The last two years have been the weakest outside of a recession.
Over the past year, nonfarm payrolls increased by 23,000, with 18,900 of those jobs coming in the private sector and governments adding 4,100 jobs, according to the December employment report from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
That is only a little better than the 22,100 jobs added in 2024. The pace of hiring, at 0.8%, is one of the slowest outside the last three recessions, but it was double the U.S. rate of 0.4%.
Job growth was enough to push the number of nonfarm workers in the state above 3 million for the first time, according to the report. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that as of June 30, the state’s population had crossed 6 million people. One out of every two residents in the state is collecting a paycheck from an employer who pays premiums for unemployment insurance.
A little over two-thirds of residents over age 16 in Colorado, 66.9% to be precise, described themselves as working or actively looking for work in December. That ratio, called the state’s labor force participation rate, has been falling for two years and is now at its lowest level since October 2020. It remains one of the highest rates in the country.
Wobbekind said he doesn’t think the drop in participation explains the shrinkage of the workforce. People aren’t dropping out like they tend to do during a downturn.
Instead, the big drop in migration, both domestic and international, might be influencing the share of the overall population that is in the prime working age range. And if working-age adults are leaving, that might explain why the labor force is shrinking.
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Colorado
Colorado faces LA in first round as Kings captain Anze Kopitar embarks on final Stanley Cup chase
DENVER — Anze Kopitar wrapped up the last regular season of his storied career. The Los Angeles Kings captain wants to prolong his final playoff run for as long as possible.
Kopitar, who announced in September his plans to retire, instantly becomes a postseason rallying point for the Kings. They have a tall task ahead of them against the Colorado Avalanche, the top team in the league, with the top goal scorer in Nathan MacKinnon and one of the best defensemen in the game in Cale Makar. Game 1 is Sunday at Ball Arena, where the Avalanche are 26-9-6.
“Playoffs,” said the 38-year-old Kopitar, a two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Kings. “I’m not going to say anything can happen, but we’ll go in and we’ll play hard and we’ll see where that takes us.”
This will be the third postseason series between the two teams and the first in 24 years. Colorado won in seven games during both the 2002 conference quarterfinals and the 2001 conference semifinals.
It’s been a record season for the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche as they amassed the most points (121) in franchise history. That broke the mark set by the 2022 team, which went on to win the Stanley Cup title. MacKinnon had a career-best 53 goals.
Goaltenders Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood shared the net this season and surrendered a league low in goals. They earned the William M. Jennings Trophy, which is presented to the goalies who have played a minimum of 25 games — Wedgewood suited up in 45 and Blackwood 39 — for the team with the fewest goals allowed. The other goaltender to win that honor for Colorado was Hall of Famer Patrick Roy (2001-02).
“We’re in a good spot,” Colorado forward Brock Nelson said. “The mentality of this group throughout the year, right from the start of training camp, (was) set on a mission to be the best team.”
Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon (29) celebrates the goal against Edmonton Oilers goalie Connor Ingram (39) during shoot-out NHL action, in Edmonton on Monday, April 13, 2026. Credit: AP/JASON FRANSON
Record against each other
The Kings went 0-3 against Colorado this season and were outscored by a 13-5 margin.
“You hear the hype. They have good players,” Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke said. “We’re a scrappy team. We keep it close with everybody. That can really frustrate them.”
Leading after two
The Avalanche were 41-0-0 when leading after two periods. They’re the first squad to have a lead after two periods on 40 or more instances and capture each one, according to team research.
“Even though we’ve been smart, we’ve been committed, we’ve been relentless at times, it’s going to have to go to a whole new level now,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I have faith in our guys.”
Los Angeles Kings’ Anze Kopitar, who is retiring after this season, acknowledges the crowd after being recognized after losing to the Vancouver Canucks during overtime NHL hockey action in Vancouver, on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. Credit: AP/DARRYL DYCK
Remember the season opener?
Six grueling months ago, the Avalanche and Kings opened the season against each other. The Avalanche won 4-1 in Los Angeles behind a pair of goals from Martin Necas, who would go on to register his first 100-point season (38 goals, 62 assists).
The two teams join an exclusive club by becoming the fifth pair since 2015-16 to open the regular season and the playoffs against each other, according to NHL Stats. The other pairs to do so were Montreal and Toronto (2020-21); Colorado and St. Louis (2020-21); St. Louis and Winnipeg (2018-19); and Los Angeles and San Jose (2015-16).
Of those teams that won the season opener only San Jose went on to win the series. It’s a trend Kopitar and the Kings wouldn’t mind joining.
Kopitar and the playoffs
Kopitar helped the Kings to the Stanley Cup title in 2011-12 and 2013-14 along with goaltender Jonathan Quick, who now is with the New York Rangers and recently said he’s retiring. Kopitar has played in 103 postseason games with 27 goals and 62 assists.
“The intensity ramps up, everything ramps up,” Kopitar said of the postseason. “Every mistake, every little play, magnifies now.”
Familiar faces
Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper was in net for the Avalanche when they won the Stanley Cup in 2022. In addition, Kuemper and Drew Doughty were teammates with MacKinnon, Makar and Devon Toews when Canada won silver at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
Colorado
U.S. Women’s National Team Closes Three-Game Series Against Japan With Emphatic 3-0 Victory in Colorado
COMMERCE CITY, COLO. (April 17, 2026) – Naomi Girma, Rose Lavelle and Kennedy Wesley scored second-half goals to lead the U.S. Women’s National Team to a 3-0 victory over Japan in the third and final match of the series between the two sides.
Wesley recorded her first international goal and assist in her sixth cap to become the 27th player to score under U.S. head coach Emma Hayes. Girma scored her third international goal and Lavelle scored her 29th, marking her 10th goal contribution in her last 10 appearances.
Precision in the final third had been a key point of emphasis for Hayes heading into the match, and even though the USA did not score before the break, it showed flashes of what was to come in the second half, dominating 70% of possession and firing nine shots. The USWNT then broke through with three goals in the first 20 minutes of the second half to record its largest victory over Japan since 2017.
For the first time in this three-game series, the match went into halftime scoreless, but the Americans came close on several occasions. Off one of the USA’s four first half corner kicks, the most dangerous look came in the 21st minute from a Lavelle service that was headed around the box before defender Tierna Davidson nodded the ball down to Sophia Wilson, who had her back to goal. The forward chested down the ball and smashed a turnaround half-volley that forced a point blank save from Japanese goalkeeper Chika Hirao. Girma leaped up to get her head on the rebound, but her shot went over the crossbar.
In the 39th minute, Lavelle received the ball just past half field and played a long switch over to Alyssa Thompson on the left side. The forward beat her defender before playing a pass centrally to midfielder Claire Hutton at the top of the box. Her first-time shot from just outside the penalty box clanged off the crossbar and out for a goal kick. In one of the final plays before the half, forward Trinity Rodman cut inside the box and sent a cross in that deflected off defender Toko Koga, nearly causing an own goal before Hirao collected the ball.
As it did in the first match of the series, the USA came out hot to start the second half and scored almost immediately. On April 11, the USA scored 141 seconds into the half and tonight the goal came 155 seconds after the half began. The USA earned a corner kick after Wilson blasted a shot from outside the box that forced another leaping save from Hirao. Lavelle sent in service from the right corner that drifted towards Wesley at the back post. Wesley headed the cross back in front of goal for Girma, who redirected the ball with a powerful header into the back of the net. The goal was a combination of two center backs and former Stanford University teammates for Girma’s first goal since October of 2024.
Less than 10 minutes later, Wesley started the counterattack that led to the second goal. The defender picked off a pass in the USA’s defensive third and played captain Lindsey Heaps in the midfield. Heaps passed the ball forward to Rodman, who nutmegged her defender with a long pass, splitting two more Japanese players to send Lavelle in on a breakaway. Lavelle dribbled to the top of 18-yard box and then slotted a low shot into the bottom left corner with class to double the lead.
The squad kept the momentum rolling following substitutions just after the hour mark. A few minutes after entering the match, midfielder Jaedyn Shaw stepped up to take the USA’s sixth corner kick of the match. She sent a cross to the center of the box where Wesley leaped to hit a shot with the outside of her right foot, redirecting the ball through traffic and into the left side goal for the third of the night and the first of her USWNT career.
The USA held Japan scoreless for the first time in the series with goalkeeper Claudia Dickey making three saves to earn her eighth clean sheet in her 10th appearance.
Goal Scoring Rundown:
USA –NAOMI GIRMA (KENNEDY WESLEY),47th minute: Rose Lavelle lofted a corner kick from the right to the back post to Kennedy Wesley, who drifted under the ball and headed it back in front of the face of goal. Naomi Girma was in perfect position to redirect the cross with a forceful header into the back of the net at the center of the six-yard box. USA 1, JPN 0
USA – ROSE LAVELLE (TRINITY RODMAN), 56th minute: Kennedy Wesley intercepted a pass in the USA’s defensive third and played Lindsey Heaps near the center circle. Heaps played the ball forward to Trinity Rodman, who split two defenders with a pass up the field as Lavelle made a run inside. Lavelle dribbled toward the 18-yard box before slotting her shot to the bottom left corner of the goal. USA 2, JPN 0
USA – KENNEDY WESLEY (JAEDYN SHAW), 63rd minute: Jaedyn Shaw sent a corner kick toward the center of the box. Around eight yards out, Kennedy Wesley connected with the cross using the outside of her right foot, sending her shot through traffic into the back of the net. USA 3, JPN 0 FINAL
Additional Notes:
- Emma Hayes made 10 changes to the Starting XI from the last match against Japan on April 14 with Claire Hutton as the only player to start two games in a row. However, this Starting XI had only two changes from the Starting XI on April 11 in the first game against Japan. From the first match, Tierna Davidson replaced Kennedy Wesley on the back line and Hutton stepped in for midfielder Sam Coffey.
- With her cap today, Colorado native Lindsey Heaps tied Shannon MacMillan for 18th most caps in USWNT history with 176, making her one of only 19 women to reach the milestone. Heaps will return to her hometown to play professionally as a member of the NWSL’s Denver Summit upon the completion of her contract with OL Lyonnes in July.
- The other starter from Colorado was forward Sophia Wilson. The last time Wilson and Heaps played in Colorado was on June 1, 2024, vs. Korea Republic. The U.S. also won that match 4-0, which was also Hayes’ first match as head coach of the USWNT and the fourth-to-last match before of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Wilson hails from Windsor just an hour from Commerce City and Denver proper while Golden, a suburb of Denver, is Heaps’ hometown.
- Davidson earned the start, her first since Feb. 23, 2025, in a 2-1 win over Australia. In the WNT’s previous match on April 14, Davidson entered as a substitute in the 65th minute, her first appearance in more than one year following her recovery from an ACL injury she suffered in March of 2025. Tonight, she played the first 45 minutes before coming out on pre-planned sub.
- Center back Naomi Girma scored her third international goal – and all three have been headers. She scored her first two international goals on Oct. 30, 2024, against Argentina.
- Girma was assisted on her goal by fellow center back and Stanford Cardinal Kennedy Wesley, who replaced Davidson at halftime. Girma and Wesley played two full seasons together on the backline over three overlapping school years (2019-2022) as Girma took a redshirt season for her junior year (2020-21) due to injury. It was Wesley’s first international assist in her sixth career cap.
- Rose Lavelle’s goal in the 56th minute tonight was her 29th career goal and second goal of the week after recording one goal and an assist in the April 11 match against Japan. Lavelle now has 10 goal contributions in her last 10 matches for the USWNT.
- Lavelle was assisted by forward Trinity Rodman, who recorded her 11th international assist.
- Wesley scored her first international goal in the 64th minute. She is the 27th player to score a goal under head coach Emma Hayes. The center back ended her 45 minutes of play with two contributions, a goal and an assist, and was voted Woman of the Match.
- Jaedyn Shaw recorded her fifth career assist on Wesley’s goal with her service on a corner kick.
- Two of the three goals scored by the U.S. tonight came off corner kicks.
- The USWNT recorded its first clean sheet of the April window and its eighth shutout win in its last 10 matches.
- With the temperature at 38 degrees at kickoff and patches of snow pushed outside the edges of the pitch, it was the coldest WNT game since February 2022, which kicked off in Frisco, Texas.
- With the new FIFA substitution rules in effect (eight are now allowed in friendly matches), and Japan making use of a concussion sub, which gave the USA an extra substitution opportunity, the USA made its most ever substitutions in a single game over the 778 matches in program history with nine.
- Japan also made nine substitutions.
– U.S. WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM MATCH REPORT –
Match: United States vs. Japan
Date: April 17, 2026
Competition: International Friendly
Venue: DICK’S Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, Colo.
Attendance: 17,589
Kickoff: 7 p.m. MT / 9 p.m. ET
Weather: 38 degrees, mostly sunny
| Scoring Summary | 1 | 2 | F |
| USA | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| JPN | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| USA — Naomi Girma (Kennedy Wesley) | 47th minute |
| USA — Rose Lavelle (Trinity Rodman) | 56 |
| USA — Kennedy Wesley (Jaedyn Shaw) | 64 |
Lineups:
USA: 1-Claudia Dickey, 23-Emily Fox, 4-Naomi Girma (5-Lilly Reale, 83), 12-Tierna Davidson (25-Kennedy Wesley, 46), 22-Gisele Thompson (3-Avery Patterson, 62), 10-Lindsey Heaps (Capt.) (17-Sam Coffey, 63), 15-Claire Hutton (7-Lily Yohannes, 82), 16-Rose Lavelle (13-Olivia Moultrie, 73), 2-Trinity Rodman (20-Michelle Cooper, 73), 11-Sophia Wilson (9-Ally Sentnor, 73), 21-Alyssa Thompson (8-Jaedyn Shaw, 63)
Substitutes not used: 6-Emily Sams, 19-Emma Sears, 24-Phallon Tullis-Joyce
Not dressing: 14-Emily Sonnett, 18-Jane Campbell
Head Coach: Emma Hayes
JPN: 12-Chika Hirao, 2- Risa Shimizu (24-Maya Hijikata, 74), 6-Toko Koga (3-Moeka Minami, 60), 4-Saki Kumagai, 13-Hikaru Kitagawa (21-Miyabi Moriya, 25), 19-Momoko Tanikawa (20-Manaka Matsukubo, 46), 16-Yuzuki Yamamoto (17-Maika Hamano, 46), 14-Yui Hasegawa (Capt.) (10-Fuka Nagano, 74), 15-Aoba Fujino (22-Remina Chiba, 74), 9-Riko Ueki (11-Mina Tanaka, 46), 7-Hinata Miyazawa (18-Honoka Hayashi, 60)
Substitutes not used: 23-Akane Okuma, 1-Ayaka Yamashita
Head Coach: Michihisa Kano
Stats Summary: USA / JPN
Shots: 15 / 5
Shots on Goal: 7 / 3
Saves: 3 / 4
Corner Kicks: 6 / 2
Fouls: 7 / 5
Offside: 0 / 2
Misconduct Summary:
None
Officials:
Ref: Myriam Marcotte (CAN)
AR1: Mijensa Rensch (SUR)
AR2: Stephanie Yee Sing (JAM)
4TH: Carly Shaw-Maclaren (CAN)
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