blogs with jobs

Those with jobs in Denver have received some good news.

Forbes recently ranked Colorado fourth in its 2009 “Best States for Business” list. The list was based on each state’s regulatory environment, business costs, labor supply, quality of life, economic climate and growth potential. Colorado received rankings in the top 20 for five of the six criteria, including labor supply and growth.

“As companies are looking at their expansion plans, they’re looking for areas that have a very friendly business climate, quality labor, good quality of life, all of the things that we have here in Denver,” Patty Silverstein, chief economist with the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, told 9NEWS.

In addition to the ranking from Forbes, a recent poll from Manpower Inc. found that 77 percent of employers plan to keep hiring even during the next quarter. While that number may be frustrating to job seekers, it means that fewer employers are planning to fire workers.

“Many people focus on job opportunities as the key indicator that Denver is moving out of a recession,” Silverstein said. “We do have about 9 percent that say they are still going to add jobs over the next three months.”

Silverstein further noted that many future jobs are planned for the Denver area. Upcoming projects include a 350,000-square-foot office building that will house the Aerospace Data Facility Colorado and a second solar power plan at Denver International Airport, in addition to a six-gate expansion to the west end of Concourse A.

Although the Denver area has lost some jobs, employment in the area has remained relatively stable, with the unemployment rate decreasing during August, the most recent month for which labor market statistics are available.

During August, the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield area saw its unemployment rate decrease from 8 percent to 7.4 percent, which was lower than the national unemployment rate at the time of 9.7 percent. Prior to August, the area had not seen its unemployment rate decline since March, when it went from 8.1 percent to 7.5 percent.

The area had a total non-farm employment of 1,206,800 workers during August, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 1,208,900 workers during July and a 4.6 percent decrease from last year.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 9:40 am and is filed under job search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.