Ann Hutchison, CEO of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce, ticked off the numbers that help to frame where the economy stands during a chamber state-of-business event Tuesday afternoon at the Anheuser Busch visitors center.
The gross regional product — regional defined as Larimer and Weld counties — grew during the 2020 pandemic year. It was $32.9 billion in 2019 and $34.6 billion in 2020. The increase reflects the uneven nature of how the pandemic affected businesses. Some businesses did very well, she said, and others struggled.
The labor force is bigger now than at the end of 2019 by about 1,116 people, but the number of employed people is smaller — 352,112 now versus 367,055 at the end of 2019.