Science, technology jobs make Boulder Valley, NoCo top regions for wages

DENVER — The Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado regions are home to some of the highest-paid labor pools in the state, thanks to high concentrations of technology and science-centric occupations.

The Boulder metropolitan area, which includes all of Boulder County, had the highest wages in the state in 2021, with an annual average salary of $73,360, according to new data from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

The Fort Collins-Loveland metro area — encompassing Larimer County — was third at $59,120, and the Greeley metro area — encompassing Weld County — was fifth at $54,090, data compiled by the state and federal Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program shows. 

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In the Boulder area, software developers were the most-common profession, the only region in the state where retail or food service workers weren’t the most prevalent. 

In the Greeley metropolitan area, fast-food and counter workers were the most common jobs, and in Fort Collins it was retail salesperson.

The state also tracks a metric called location quotient, which reveals jobs in a certain region that are more common there than in the nation at large. 

For example, the Boulder metro has vastly more physicists than the nationwide average. 

In the Fort Collins region, conservation scientists are heavily weighted by the location quotient, and oil and gas operators are more commonly found in the Greeley area. 

Statewide in 2021, workers had an average hourly wage of $30.24, about 8% above the national average of $28.01.