Colorado · NAICS 72 · Annual, 2025
Accommodation and Food Services in Colorado
Employment, establishments and average pay for NAICS 72 in Colorado, 2004–2025, from DTG's QCEW-based estimates.
In 2025, Accommodation and Food Services (NAICS 72) employed about 285,700 people in Colorado across roughly 14,914 establishments, with average annual pay of $34,950.
Employment in Accommodation and Food Services in Colorado grew 25.5% from 2020 to 2025. Average pay in the industry is 58.5% below the all-industries average in Colorado. Quarterly values, full industry detail and projections to 2036 for Colorado are included with a free account. County-level detail is part of every paid plan, or one county free for seven days.
- 285,700Employment, 2025
- 14,914Establishments
- $34,950Avg. annual pay
- 9.9%Share of Colorado jobs
- 1.08Location quotient
Employment, 2004 to 2025
Annual average · all ownerships
Annual employment, 2004–2025: 2004 209,900; 2005 214,900; 2006 221,500; 2007 226,500; 2008 228,000; 2009 218,600; 2010 218,700; 2011 226,500; 2012 233,500; 2013 242,600; 2014 251,600; 2015 262,200; 2016 271,200; 2017 278,300; 2018 283,100; 2019 286,400; 2020 227,700; 2021 255,300; 2022 281,300; 2023 290,200; 2024 289,300; 2025 285,700.
Last ten years
Annual · 10 years
| Year | Employment | Estab. | Avg. annual pay | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 285,701 | 14,914 | $34,945 | 1.2% | pub. |
| 2024 | 289,291 | 15,038 | $33,780 | 0.3% | pub. |
| 2023 | 290,250 | 15,304 | $32,711 | 3.2% | pub. |
| 2022 | 281,336 | 14,738 | $31,181 | 10.2% | pub. |
| 2021 | 255,348 | 14,411 | $28,493 | 12.1% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2020 | 227,731 | 14,109 | $25,579 | 20.5% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2019 | 286,447 | 13,936 | $24,829 | 1.2% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2018 | 283,093 | 13,687 | $23,461 | 1.7% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2017 | 278,320 | 13,454 | $22,159 | 2.6% | est. · 1.00 |
| 2016 | 271,167 | 13,147 | $21,020 | 3.4% | est. · 1.00 |
† Not disclosed in QCEW; DTG estimate.
The full history from 2004 and quarterly values are available with a free account.
By subsector, 2025
3-digit NAICS · 2 shown
| Code | Subsector | Employment | Share of accommodation and food services | LQ | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 721 | Accommodation | 47,418 | 16.6% | 1.27 | pub. |
| 722 | Food Services and Drinking Places | 238,283 | 83.4% | 1.05 | pub. |
Where these numbers come from
Reading these figures
The figures on this page come from one named vintage, stated below, and are annual values for all ownerships combined. Where QCEW withheld a value, the marked figure is an estimate that DTG produced under the constraints of the published record; suppression is a property of QCEW, not of DTG, and a withheld value is marked rather than silently omitted. Two things DTG itself holds back, and says so where it does: an estimate that cannot be given a reliability score is not shown, and average pay is not shown where fewer than three jobs are reported. The row is marked withheld, with the reason in a note beneath the table. The mark is on every row that carries a value: the headline, the yearly history, the subsectors and the other states. An estimated value that rounds below one is shown as less than one, not as zero. Quarterly figures, county figures and projected years are in the app.
How this figure was built
Employment is the average of the three monthly counts in each quarter, averaged across the year, and establishments are averaged across the year the same way. Average annual pay is the year’s total wages divided by that average employment. Each of these is DTG’s value: QCEW’s published figure where QCEW disclosed it, and DTG’s estimate, marked, where it did not. How withheld values are estimated, and what the reliability score beside a figure means, are described on the industry data and disclosure and provenance pages.
Notes
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Accommodation and Food Services in Colorado, quarterly, at full depth
This page shows annual figures for accommodation and food services in Colorado. A free account shows every detailed industry beneath it, quarterly, for every state, with projections to ten years. No card.
County figures, file export and the API are on paid plans.