July 27, 2012

Employment

Employment in Northern Colorado, as in most part of the country, has been mixed, though the overall regional labor market has shown signs of definite recovery.

The good news: the region added nearly 4,000 jobs through April this year.

More than 165,100 people were employed in Larimer County as of late spring; nearly 111,500 were employed in Weld County.

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Many of those jobs were in health care, education and oil and gas, some of the healthier segments of the regional economy.

Unemployment in the Fort Collins and Loveland area stood at 6.1 percent in March, an improvement over last year’s 6.2 percent and the lowest among urban areas statewide.

The Greeley area’s unemployment rate dropped from 8.7 percent in March 2011 to 8.5 percent this past March, according to the most recent report from the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting. Still, the Greeley area had the third-highest jobless rate among the state’s urban areas.

Greeley area unemployment went from 5.2 percent in 2008 as the financial crisis set in to 9.3 percent in 2009. The rate peaked at 10.2 percent the next year.

JBS remains the largest employer in Greeley, with 6,000 employees.

Other major private-sector employers in the area include North Colorado Medical Center with 2,200 employees last year and Hensel Phelps Construction with 2,000.

Fort Collins’ largest private-sector employer was Poudre Valley Health System with nearly 5,300 employees. Call-center operator Center Partners had 3,500 staffers and Columbine Health Systems had nearly 1,400.

Loveland’s largest private-sector employer was Walmart with nearly 1,000, followed by McKee Medical Center at 850.

Average annual wages in Northern Colorado remained below the state average of $50,700. Larimer County wages were $44,600 while Weld County wages were $42,000.

Those figures could be climbing. Employers in Northern Colorado forecast a 2.6-percent wage increase for their workers next year, tying metro Denver for the highest average projections in the state, according to a survey from the Mountain States Employers Council.

Employment in Northern Colorado, as in most part of the country, has been mixed, though the overall regional labor market has shown signs of definite recovery.

The good news: the region added nearly 4,000 jobs through April this year.

More than 165,100 people were employed in Larimer County as of late spring; nearly 111,500 were employed in Weld County.

Many of those jobs were in health care, education and oil and gas, some of the healthier segments of the regional economy.

Unemployment in the Fort Collins and Loveland area stood at 6.1 percent in March, an improvement over last year’s 6.2 percent…

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