DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado’s stay-at-home order is set to expire April 26, but economists think it’ll take much more than that for the economy to begin to recover.
Thousands of small businesses are closed and more than 230,000 people have filed for unemployment in Colorado in the last month.
“There’s a lot of unknowns,’ said Andrew Friedson, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Colorado Denver. “We haven’t seen anything like this in over 100 years.”
Those unknowns include when and how quickly Colorado’s economy will bounce back.
It starts when Gov. Jared Polis lifts the state’s stay-at-home order. But economists believe it will probably take much more than that.
“You can lift the (stay-at-home) order, but if people don’t feel comfortable going out and consuming in large groups, you’re just going to be trickling things back,” Friedson said.
Friedson said one of the biggest factors for the economy is people feeling safe enough to spend money in public.
“You show me the infection rate’s under control, you’ll see people participating again,” Friedson said. “Until people feel comfortable getting back out there, it’s not going to happen.”