Employment opportunities dwindle as banks downsize

But qualified managers remain in short supply

Growth of bank assets from the population and business boom along the Front Range is not resulting in the growth of wages or an increase in job opportunities in the banking industry, Northern Colorado bankers say.

But it is changing the business of banking.

Federal regulatory reports show that the U.S. banking industry has bucked a nationwide trend toward increased service-sector employment, gaining only 2,061 jobs in state-chartered banks and thrifts, only one-tenth of 1 percent, as of the year ending Sept. 30 1996.

Colorado banks and thrifts actually lost 203 positions, 1.2 percent, meaning that the…