The biggest story in business in 2021 continued to be Colorado’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

While state unemployment levels stood at 6.6% in January, they continued to slide throughout the year and finished at 5.1% in November, the latest figures available. While that’s getting closer to the 4.7% level in March 2020 as the pandemic was settling in, it’s still more than double the 2.5% unemployment level the state enjoyed in January 2019 — the lowest unemployment rate since the state began keeping such records in 1976.

Denver got hit harder than other cities of similar size because of its large leisure/hospitality industry, and large number of full-service restaurants — many of which were forced to shut down more than once during the pandemic.

Much of the state’s declining unemployment was due to workers returning, but it’s also a result of what economists are calling the Great Reshuffle, or the Great Resignation. Many workers refused to return to jobs they held before the pandemic — either not wanting to physically be there, or trying to reach for a better job or small business ownership.

“Colorado is hiring. Every day more Coloradans are joining innovative companies, starting new careers, or growing small businesses,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a December news release touting the state’s employment growth.

A total of 39,252 new entities, or businesses, were filed at the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office in the second quarter of 2021, up 25.7% year-over-year, and 157,300 in the 12 months ending in that quarter, according to the Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators for Q3, prepared by the Leeds Business Research Division at CU Boulder in conjunction with the Secretary of State’s Office.

“The 12-month total posted the largest absolute and percentage gains year-over-year, reaching a new record level,” the report says of new business filings, most of which were LLCs.

The other huge story business writers were keeping up with in 2021 was metro Denver’s smoking hot home sales market. The year saw record high average prices for homes in metro Denver, record high rents and record low inventory, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.

For most of the year, it was what real estate professionals described as an “extreme seller’s market.” Bidding wars ensued and all cash offers became the norm in this market in 2021.

“This is unheard of from my history in the market. I’ve never seen it like this,” said longtime Denver Realtor Billy Van Heusen, who has had a Colorado real estate license since 1972. “Everything is out of whack and there’s no inventory.”

Finally, it was tremendous to cover Colorado’s growing aerospace industry. From the return of the Space Symposium to Colorado Springs, to the numerous aerospace companies that either relocated to Colorado or grew here.

Without the growing number of aerospace companies in metro Denver, it’s safe to say NASA would not be sending humans to the moon again.

The large companies that are based here such as Lockheed Martin, Ball Aerospace, Sierra Space and United Launch Alliance serve as magnets, drawing support companies into close orbit in Colorado. Couple that with the aggressive — and successful — efforts of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade to lure aerospace companies here with incentives and the talent-rich environment provided by schools like the University of Colorado Boulder and the Colorado School of Mines.

Colorado companies had a huge part of space milestones in 2021: The Mars rover that landed on the red planet was protected by an aeroshell designed and built by Lockheed Martin; Red Canyon Engineering and software in Denver partnered with Lockheed Martin on NASA’s Orion spacecraft. NASA is scheduled to launch an unmanned Orion on its Artemis I mission to the moon in 2022. Future Artemis missions will deliver the first woman and person of color to the moon, possibly by 2024.

A spacecraft named Lucy was launched on a 12-year mission to study the ancient Trojan asteroids near Jupiter. It’s a joint effort by NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center, NASA’s Launch Services Program and Boulder-based Southwest Research Institute. Lockheed Martin designed, built, tested and will operate the spacecraft from its Waterton Canyon campus southwest of metro Denver. It launched aboard a Centennial-based United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

Finally, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope lifted off Christmas Day from the French Guiana. Ball aerospace, a Colorado-based company, designed and built the advanced optical technology and lightweight mirror system that will enable Webb to detect light from the first stars and galaxies. Lockheed Martin designed and built the Near Infrared Camera. “Webb’s primary imager and one of the most sensitive infrared cameras ever built,” according to a release.

It will replace the Hubble space telescope.