Denver ranks second on national post-recession recovery list.
Denver leads other Colorado cities in a study ranking the post-recession progress of the 150 largest urban centers in the U.S.
In fact, the Colorado capital ranked second in the country, following Lubbock, Texas, in WalletHub’s list, released in September. Aurora and Colorado Springs took the 56th and 101st slots, respectively. San Bernardino, California, ranked last on the national list.
The WalletHub study compared pre- and post-recession figures for factors including: number of businesses, unemployment rate, labor-force participation rate, poverty rate and inflow of college-educated workers.
The study compared the cities across two particular dimensions—employment and earning opportunities, and economic environment—to evaluate the progress of local cities in propelling economic growth.
Denver earned a number 1 ranking in the country for employment and earning opportunities, and 21 for economic environment.
“We were late entering the recession, as a state, compared to the nation, and we were early exiting the recession,” Brian Lewandowski, associate director of the Business Research Division at the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business, told the Denver Post in September. “We’ve actually been outperforming the nation and almost every other state in year-over-year job growth.”
