Despite cutting jobs in 2006, the two largest employers in Boulder and Broomfield counties, IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc. remain at the top of the list of the area’s largest private-sector employers.

Although it cut 200 jobs at its campus between Boulder and Longmont, IBM (NYSE: IBM, $93.28) moved from No. 2 to replace Sun’s operations in Broomfield as the No. 1 private-sector employer in the Boulder Valley with 4,000 employees.

The University of Colorado in Boulder is the No. 1 public-sector employer with 7,050 full-time workers.

Last year the perennial largest-private employer was unseated by Sun Microsystems because its 2005 purchase of Louisville-based Storage Technology Corp. garnered the company about 2,000 employees.

With 1,313 jobs lost during the year, 2006’s No. 1 company Sun (Nasdaq: SUNW, $6.27) is now No. 2 with a local work force of 3,387.

Gainers, in order of percent increase, are Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette, Valleylab in Boulder, Seagate Technology LLC and Longmont United Hospital in Longmont, Boulder Community Hospital and Safeway Inc.

No. 3 Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL, $45.90) and No. 5 Level 3 Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT, $6.32) saw no change in work force numbers from last year – they employ 3,000 and 2,000, respectively.

However, Level 3 announced in February it intends to outsource 1,000 of its 5,800 jobs worldwide during 2007, but it is still unclear how many jobs, if any, will be lost in Boulder and Broomfield counties.

Boulder Community Hospital hired 30 people, for a total of 2,380. The 1.3 increase landed the hospital the No. 4 spot for the fifth year in a row.

Seagate and Valleylab, Nos. 6 and 9 respectively, each hired 100 people.

For Seagate (NYSE: STX, $24.26), that equals an increase of nearly 7 percent to 1,500 jobs.

Valleylab, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE: TYC, $30.68), saw an 8 percent jump to 1,300 jobs. Valleylab, which will be part of a new company called Covidien when Tyco divides into three separate public companies this spring, also moved up from ninth place last year.

With 1,310 employees, Exempla shot into seventh place from 11th. The hospital, which opened in December 2004, hired 168 people last year for an increase of 15 percent.

Despite growing by 2 percent by hiring 23, Longmont United Hospital slipped to No. 9 from No. 8. It now employs 1,262.

Safeway (NYSE: SWY, $34.27) showed a small gain, but that didn’t keep the Pleasanton, Calif.-based grocer from sliding from seventh to 10th place. The company grew 0.4 percent and now employs 1,250 at its eight stores in the Boulder Valley – three in Longmont, three in Boulder, one in Lafayette and one in Broomfield.

Contact Caron Schwartz Ellis at (303) 440-4950 or csellis@bcbr.com.

Boulder Valley’s 10 largest private-sector employers

Rank    Name                                                            No.  of        Percent

                                                                                employees     change

1    IBM Corp.                                                                4,000      -4.8

2    Sun Microsystems Inc.                                          3,387      -28

3    Ball Corp.                                                                3,000       No change

4    Boulder Community Hospital                              2,380       1.3

5    Level 3 Communications Inc.                             2,000        No change

6    Seagate Technology LLC                                   1,500        7.1

7    Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center       1,310       15

8    Valleylab                                                                 1,300        8

9    Longmont United Hospital                                  1,262         2

10    Safeway Inc.                                                        1,250         0.4