Two years after debuting a grievance kind permitting anybody to report business-identity theft, the Colorado Secretary of State’s workplace has, as of this week, obtained 3,508 complaints about enterprise data. Greater than half are beneath investigation whereas one other 44% have been resolved and labeled “unauthorized or fraudulent.”
Corresponding to this one.
Not too way back, the division couldn’t do a factor if it came upon somebody had hijacked one other firm’s title or handle. So long as the enterprise file was updated and charges have been paid, the file would get a “Good Standing” label. Because of Senate Invoice 34, which handed in 2022, the secretary of state can ship complaints to the lawyer normal to analyze and flag offenders within the system to forestall additional abuse.
“We had estimated when the regulation was handed that it could be used rather a lot lower than we’re seeing,” mentioned Secretary of State Jena Griswold, throughout a information convention Monday. “Nevertheless it’s displaying two issues: No. 1, there’s been an uptick in fraudulent enterprise takeovers for the reason that pandemic. And No. 2, the system that we arrange and put into regulation actually is working.”
Her workplace is chargeable for the state’s enterprise listing, the authorized data of corporations integrated in Colorado. However the “Good Standing” label appeared deceptive. It by no means meant the enterprise was reliable. As disclaimers on the secretary of state’s website say, “this workplace doesn’t evaluate or confirm info submitted in these filings” nor “regulate or examine enterprise practices or operations.”
That made it difficult for shoppers and professionals attempting to suss out whether or not an unfamiliar firm was credible. Opportunists and scammers have abused the system by incorporating shell corporations that promote counterfeit merchandise or prey on victims for monetary acquire or who is aware of what.
One out-of-state applicant filed greater than 15,500 new enterprise formations in 2022 and 2023 utilizing another person’s handle in Northglenn. Defendant Marcio Garcia Andrade settled with the AG’s workplace final fall for violating the Colorado Client Safety Act. Andrade’s lawyer advised The Colorado Solar that his registered agent had moved out of the home with out telling him.
As a part of the regulation, victims can file a grievance if their title or handle is being utilized by one other registered enterprise or if their enterprise info was modified with out consent.
Registered enterprise brokers are prohibited from utilizing a P.O. Field as their handle. Companies which are dissolved or late of their paperwork can also’t simply refile after a sure variety of years except they present proof of ID and an affidavit.
One other rule that goes into impact in July requires registered brokers to have a Colorado driver’s license or state identification card.
Griswold mentioned her workplace is asking the Joint Funds Committee this session for a full-time staffer plus $55,000 “to verify we are able to sustain with demand.”
The extra funding would come from inside — from enterprise submitting charges, mentioned Jack Todd, a spokesman for the Secretary of State. The division is self-sustaining. Within the final fiscal 12 months, it raised $29.5 million in revenues and this fiscal 12 months, it’s on monitor to lift $41.1 million, he mentioned. However it could actually’t simply transfer cash willy-nilly. It wants permission.
“On the finish of the day, being an lawyer myself, it’s secure to say we don’t need small enterprise house owners to have to rent attorneys and undergo doubtlessly years of litigation to retake their title, their handle or their enterprise,” Griswold mentioned. “This can be a strategy to minimize crimson tape and the fee for enterprise house owners and Coloradans.”
➔ Suspect enterprise ID theft? File a grievance
Enterprise begins down, dissolutions up
New enterprise filings continued to say no, falling 13% within the fourth quarter, from a 12 months earlier, in keeping with the state division’s newest enterprise replace. That was blamed on the top of a submitting charge low cost to $1 in mid-2023. Charges are again to $50 to include in Colorado.
In the other way, the variety of corporations dissolving spiked 53% within the fourth quarter to greater than 22,000. Earlier than the charge discount, dissolutions hovered beneath 12,000 1 / 4. Todd pointed to the Andrade case. “The 15,500 entities from Northglenn have been judicially dissolved inside This autumn 2024 additionally,” Todd mentioned in an e-mail.
All the way down to 1.1 open jobs per unemployed Coloradan
Employers are feeling significantly better about discovering workers since 2022, the period of rampant labor shortages. Based on a Colorado Chamber of Commerce survey of 169 employers, solely 29% plan to extend their workforce this 12 months, in contrast with 58% in 2022.
That will not be nice information for employees hoping to simply change gigs. The identical development seems in November’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Abstract. Colorado was referred to as out for having the nation’s largest decline in job openings, decreasing out there jobs per unemployed employee to 1.1. That compares with a ratio of lower than one job for each two employees in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and almost three per particular person in the course of the 2022 labor scarcity heyday.
However Colorado’s drop in job openings — down 92,000 (second place Maine misplaced 7,000) — appears suspiciously giant. Is it a typo? Economist Rick Penn with the JOLTS group on the Bureau of Labor Statistics mentioned month-to-month knowledge is simply risky.
“JOLTS can’t speculate on why knowledge will increase or decreases, however the motion is basically resulting from knowledge obtained by means of our survey respondents,” Penn mentioned in an e-mail that included a reminder that November knowledge is preliminary.
A separate examine by Aspen Tech Labs for the Colorado Chamber didn’t see such a stark drop in job openings for the state. As an alternative, the variety of job listings fell 3,657, or 3%, to 120,000 between Sept. 30 and Dec 16.
Essentially the most in-demand employee? Retail associates.
Colorado employers added 300 jobs in December
On common final 12 months, employers added 4,500 new jobs a month. However end-of-the-year numbers have been coming in a lot decrease. November misplaced extra jobs than beforehand introduced with revisions displaying a lack of 5,200 jobs as a substitute of a lower of three,900.
In December, employers added 300 jobs, primarily from the federal government including 1,100, which offset personal employers’ lack of 800. The leisure and hospitality and the monetary actions sectors misplaced greater than 1,200 jobs every, in keeping with the state Division of Labor and Employment’s December report.
Economist Brian Lewandowski on the College of Colorado took coronary heart in what areas added jobs: skilled and enterprise providers and manufacturing, which added 1,300 and 1,100 jobs, respectively.
“Job development was famous in skilled enterprise providers and that’s at all times one which we’re watching. However we’re additionally seeing development in manufacturing,” mentioned Lewandowski, govt director of the Enterprise Analysis Division on the CU enterprise college. “Hopefully, that’s the beginning of a brand new development the place we begin to see some stronger development in our goods-producing providers sector.”
As talked about in an earlier story, Lewandowski mentioned he’s involved in regards to the state’s rising unemployment price — up one-tenth of some extent to 4.4% in December. And it’s unclear why there’s job development but in addition larger unemployment. It could possibly be knowledge inconsistencies or folks working a number of jobs. “We do see them sometimes journey in several instructions,” he mentioned.
➔ ICYMI: Colorado’s unemployment price rises to 4.4%, the very best in three years. >> Learn
➔ Ups and downs in regional unemployment charges. The state’s unadjusted unemployment price was 4.5% (adjusted, it was 4.3%). That’s one of the simplest ways to see how the state’s main metro areas in contrast, as seen on this chart:
Solar financial system tales you could have missed
➔ 107 oil and fuel wells owned by an organization based mostly in a Highlands Ranch residence are about to land on Colorado’s orphan checklist. The wells, most of that are on federal land, are usually not producing and have been handed from firm to firm, racking up environmental violations. >> Learn story
➔ Colorado has spent $389M to fund its far-reaching water plans previously two years. In an replace to the Colorado Water Conservation Board, officers mentioned they’re on monitor to hit the 2033 completion date. >> Learn story
➔ Extra riders, trains working on time: RTD units new targets as public belief wanes. The company chargeable for Denver’s bus and rail traces has been looking for its footing for the previous 5 years, whereas ridership crawls out of a pandemic gap and public notion crumbles. >> Learn story
➔ Colorado medical health insurance enrollment hits a file, as a menace to federal subsidies looms. Enrollment by means of Join for Well being Colorado reached its highest-ever stage, however federal enhanced premium subsidies that helped make that potential are set to run out on the finish of the 12 months. >> Learn story
➔ Changing mining with nuclear waste? Northwestern Colorado has blended emotions about find out how to save the financial system. As northwestern Colorado loses coal jobs, a bunch is elevating the potential of nuclear waste storage as a substitute. Individuals round Hayden aren’t positive that is the “simply transition” they need. >> Learn story
➔ FACT BRIEF: Are employers in Colorado required to pay employees for unused trip time? Roughly 46% of employees within the U.S. don’t burn up their out there paid break day >> Learn story
Reader ballot outcomes: Our cities
Each place has its execs and cons. Right here’s how What’s Working readers weighed in on their very own neighborhoods within the newest reader ballot.
➔ How’s the financial system treating you? Share some suggestions to assist us report. >> Take the following ballot
Different working bits
➔ Will King Soopers employees strike once more? Employees at Entrance Vary King Soopers shops are within the strategy of voting whether or not to strike over unfair labor practices. Thus far, greater than 95% of Denver-area employees voted in favor of a walkout. Colorado Springs workers additionally voted greater than 95% in favor on Friday. One other day of voting will likely be Saturday in Pueblo.
Don’t count on a strike this weekend although. The vote solely authorizes the union to name for a strike, because it did in early 2022 when Denver-area employees walked out for 9 days. Earlier than the primary vote was held, King Soopers advised the union that its “final, finest and remaining provide” would improve the common hourly wage to $29.48.
Native 7 officers have referred to as the provide “unacceptable” as a result of will increase are usually not throughout the board, particularly throughout the state. Kim Cordova, Native 7’s president, mentioned as a result of extra contracts have expired across the state in contrast with 2022, there could possibly be hundreds extra on strike this time round. The union represents 12,000 King Soopers and Metropolis Market employees in Colorado. >> Hold monitor: Native 7, King Soopers
➔ Union membership barely grew within the U.S. in 2024. Counting 14.3 million workers nationwide, union membership made up 9.9% of the U.S. workforce and was little modified from a 12 months earlier, in keeping with a Bureau of Labor Statistics replace. Public sector employees had a a lot larger price of union membership, at 32.2%, in contrast with personal sector employees at 5.9%, a drop of 0.1 from the prior 12 months.
➔ Colorado homes took 55 days to promote for 98.7% of the checklist worth. And that introduced the state’s median gross sales worth in 2024 to $549,000, up 3.6% in a 12 months, in keeping with the Colorado Affiliation of Realtors’ Financial Summit this week. Financial forecasts for 2025 from the report embrace:
➔ Denver rents nonetheless falling in January. Final week, we discovered rents fell within the Denver metro space final 12 months, in keeping with the native residence affiliation. This week, ApartmentList mentioned rents continued to say no in January. Rents fell 1.1% in January from December to a median of $1,643 monthly. They’re down 5.4% from a 12 months in the past, a drop that’s bigger than Colorado’s, down 4.1%, and the U.S., down 0.5%. Denver ranked third-slowest for hire development. A one-bedroom unit is now going for $1,453 whereas a two bed room is $1,810. Condominium emptiness price was 8.9%, with extra out there than final 12 months. The chart beneath shares rents by metropolis:
Bought some financial information or enterprise bits Coloradans ought to know? Inform us: cosun.co/heyww
Thanks for sticking with me for this week’s report. As at all times, share your 2 cents on how the financial system is maintaining you down or serving to you up at cosun.co/heyww. ~ tamara
Miss a column? Catch up:
What’s Working is a Colorado Solar column about surviving in at the moment’s financial system. Electronic mail tamara@coloradosun.com with tales, ideas or questions. Learn the archive, ask a query at cosun.co/heyww and don’t miss the following one by signing up at coloradosun.com/getww.
Help this free e-newsletter and turn into a Colorado Solar member: coloradosun.com/be a part of
Corrections & Clarifications
Discover one thing unsuitable? The Colorado Solar has an moral duty to repair all factual errors. Request a correction by emailing corrections@coloradosun.com.
