Some unsettling numbers have come out from the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics. In their January report, the Bureau reveals that Colorado’s unemployment rate sits at a dismal 8.4%, putting us at fourth worst in the nation.

That’s a disconcerting figure, to be sure, prompting inquiries into what accounts for it. It’s not a geographical phenomenon, certainly; our neighbors Nebraska, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming are all near the other, more positive, end of that list.

Much, of course, can be attributed to COVID and the government’s response to it, but that doesn’t account fully for the numbers either. A quick glance at the BLS rankings shows, unsurprisingly, that those states with the strictest lockdowns are faring the worst when it comes to unemployment, and a great number of those out of work in our state are people who previously worked in the beleaguered hospitality and entertainment industries – restaurants, bars, theaters, and so on.

Even still, one would expect Colorado to land closer to the middle of the pack if COVID were the sole factor. Colorado’s lockdowns were, and are, harsh, one could argue misguidedly so, but were hardly the strictest in the nation. Colorado’s economy has not, traditionally, been overly dependent on those types of industries, the way, for instance, Hawaii and Nevada, two of three states doing worse than us on the unemployment list (California is the other) normally are.

It’s also not as though we are an historically economically underperforming state either. During the Bill Owens administration Colorado was consistently among the top five states for lowest unemployment rate. Even as recently as 2019, our unemployment rate more or less matched the rest of the country at historic lows.

All of this indicates that we are not recovering as quickly as other states.

It is always useful, when considering the problem of unemployment to remember Say’s Law. Jean-Baptiste Say was the French economist who postulated that a general glut was impossible because the income generated by producing goods equaled the income required to purchase all of those goods. It’s commonly (and somewhat erroneously) reduced to the phrase “production (supply) produces its own demand.” In other words, there can be no overproduction, only misdirected production.

So why do we have unemployment? Well, as generally is the case, something intercedes to mess everything up, and that something is usually government.

The oil and gas industry was for years among the top employers in the state, until some folks in government decided that they didn’t like the oil and gas industry. The flurry of regulations heaped on the industry made it impossible to cope and respond to other external influences. What happened of course was that the industry was effectively legislated out of business.

The plan was for those jobs to be replaced by others in more politically-favored industries like marijuana, whitewater rafting, and building windmills. Only that didn’t happen. In fact, last week one of the state’s largest “green” employers, Vestas, announced it was closing its plant in Brighton which manufactures windmill turbine blades, eliminating some 450 jobs.

A couple years ago, a bill was passed to establish a “Just Transition Fund,” sort of a recognition that in the course of misdirecting the economy, there would be some employment casualties. It was designed to provide a financial cushion for those who were laid off as coal plants were shuttered, and other disruptions were encountered on the road to no-emissions. The question is now floating about, more than half-seriously, of whether or not those freshly unemployed windmill blade makers qualify under the plan? They can’t go down the road and switch over to a job making downhole oil and gas equipment, or sign up as roustabouts. What is the government’s responsibility for workers whose jobs were eliminated when grand designs hit the wall of reality?

In any case, we are left here facing around an 8.5% unemployment rate and the question of what to do about it. Getting back to economic basics seems to be the place to start. Economic growth requires capital, so the logical thing for government to do would be to leave capital alone. That means no more talk about increasing taxes on the enterprising class, no more imposing administrative and financial burdens on small business, no more considerations about increasing the minimum wage (still the quickest way to increase unemployment).

In fact, if government would just take a break for even one year from its interminable pursuit of re-direction, we could put a great deal of that 8.5% back to work, and perhaps Washington D.C. would not feel compelled to spend a few more trillion of our children’s dollars every few months.