Colorado business sentiment improving, but not in the clear

Colorado has tracked the COVID-19 pandemic on two fronts, health, and the economy. While Colorado continues to fight a rise in cases, but on the economic side, it's slowly recovering.

According to the newest Leeds Business Confidence Index, business sentiment continues rebounding from historic lows. The overall sentiment is still negative.

"I think there are these setbacks that have made it so businesses aren't necessarily where they thought they would be," said Rich Wobbekind, senior economist with Leeds School of Business.

The report shows expectations are still low in terms of financial and employment recovery, despite businesses and restaurants opening back up. Wobbekind says the early September snow may have given restaurants a look into business come winter.

"They start to envision what their fourth-quarter revenues might look like if they can't serve their patrons on a snowy sidewalk," he said.

Over 400 business leaders say they expect employment to return to pre-pandemic levels by the second half of 2022.

The national unemployment rate continued to improve to 8.4% in August, down from 11.1% in June.

Still, some industries are turning furloughs or temporary layoffs into permanent ones.

"As we go through the next round of layoffs, we're going to be talking about people much more in the middle or higher end of the wage bracket," said Brian Lewandowski, Leeds Business Research Division executive director.

Despite the somewhat pessimistic outlook, economists say we are slowly moving in the right direction, approaching a more neutral outlook. The report found many Coloradans believe the state's economy will recover at a much quicker rate than the rest of the nation.