Costs are rising faster than wages. It is increasingly difficult for graduates to find work related to students’ majors. And new technologies like artificial intelligence can be a double-edged sword – improving efficiencies but also taking away jobs.
All of these topics and more were discussed Tuesday at the 34th annual Southwest Economic Outlook forum hosted at Fort Lewis College and presented by the Katz School of Business and Bank of Colorado.
The forum brought together local voices in economics, education and the workforce to examine national, state and local trends, with a particular focus on how those forces are shaping the college, its graduates and the broader La Plata County economy.
While speakers noted some positive upward trends, they did not sugarcoat the challenges facing the region, including rising costs of living, labor force declines, workforce shortages and the growing influence of artificial intelligence.
Richard Wobbekind, senior economist at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, offered a statewide view. He described labor force declines and lack of job growth, lower crop revenues in the agriculture realm and net foreign income being at its lowest in six years.
Credit card delinquencies and bankruptcy filings have also increased statewide, Wobbekind said, and Colorado’s business pessimism exceeds the national average amid uncertainty around tariffs and federal restructuring.
Still, he noted signs of balance emerging across sectors for the first time in years, with oil and gas prices normalizing and projected growth in state and local government jobs increasing.
“I do think there are reasons to be optimistic about the economy, and this is not a recessionary scenario,” he told a crowd of more than 100 attendees. “It just continues, in our view, to be a slower growth kind of scenario.”
Janae Hunderman, director of career and workforce development at FLC, said the labor market has posed a challenge for new graduates. More than half of four-year graduates end up in non-degree-related jobs, she said, as entry-level roles dwindle and AI reshapes hiring needs.
She said industry partnerships and connections, hands-on internships for students and aligning curriculum with workforce and regional needs are all part of the college working toward a solution.
“The bold, big goal that we claim here is that we want to ensure all students graduate with the skills, experiences and networks necessary for meaningful employment,” she said.
Workforce strain is especially prominent in health care, said Maggie LaRose, director of nursing at FLC.
She highlighted persistent shortages statewide and in La Plata County, further strained by federal funding cuts and the challenges of sustaining rural health systems. Bureau of Labor Statistics projections estimate there being more than 193,000 registered nurse openings each year through 2032.
The college has taken steps to address those gaps, LaRose said, like instituting FLC’s new nursing hall developed in partnership with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, which has already improved retention among the program’s first cohort.
AI emerged as both a topic of concern and opportunity at the forum.
With AI in the workplace becoming more prominent by the day, Nicole Guthrie of FLC’s AI Institute said learning to adapt to an AI-laden landscape is necessary.
Kaity Mattos of the Four Corners Water Center noted the technology’s growing demand on energy and water resources, describing that one AI inquiry is around 10 to 15 times more demanding on energy and water resources than a regular Google search.
“We have to have huge amounts of water and energy moving into the AI industry as more and more people adopt it,” Mattos said.
FLC economics professor Nate Peach underscored the widening gap between wages and the cost of living in Durango. A livable wage for a single adult is just over $48,000, according to Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado, while many service jobs – which make up much of the city’s employment – pay closer to $30,000 annually.
He said a rapid economic turnaround is unlikely, leaving residents to adapt by cutting costs or adjusting living arrangements.
“There are dimensions and margins you can adjust to make it work,” he said. “But there are also people that probably won’t work for.”
Despite the challenges, Peach described resilience as a defining strength of the community.
Liz Cartier, interim dean of the Katz School of Business, said the forum itself is part of a broader effort to build connections and spur positive forward motion.
“It’s a big piece of relationship-building,” she said. “With the knowledge that we’re getting from everybody, we can make positive change.”
epond@durangoherald.com
