Brian Lewandowski, executive director of the Business Research Division at the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business, told an audience at the Boulder Chamber’s Economic Forecast event Tuesday that that the state’s labor force has fallen 0.6% year over year as of December, propelled by a heavy loss of federal jobs.

n her presentation at the Boulder Chamber Economic Council’s annual Economic Forecast event, State Demographer Kate Watkins made it clear that Boulder is experiencing a surge in the population of residents at the traditional retirement age of 65 and older. Between today and 2060, the trend line indicates we will see a 10% increase in that proportion of our population.

The estimated financial losses for businesses as a result of the outages averaged about $25,000, according to the survey, which had nearly 300 respondents, 86% of whom claimed to have experienced a business interruption. Nine respondents reported $100,000 or more in negative impacts.