Northern Colorado, Denver area see rise in health, energy employment

The Denver metro area and Northern Colorado have seen growing employment in the health care and energy industries, according to a report released Thursday by the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.

The report looked at industry activity statewide, as well as in Weld, Larimer, Boulder, Broomfield, Jefferson, Denver, Douglas, Arapahoe and Adams counties.

In the nine-county region, the fossil fuels industry, which includes oil and natural gas development, ranked fourth of the 50 largest metro areas nationwide for fossil fuel employment concentration in 2014.

About 1,500 fossil fuels companies operate in the nine-county region employing about 30,000 people. Employment grew by 38 percent…