CU economist Wobbekind: Colorado to lose up to 65,000 jobs in 2009 - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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“We think the Colorado economyy will likely parallel or slightly follow the recovery of the national which we see leveling off in the thirdd quarter and growing in the fourth Wobbekind said ina statement. “We think the rate of job lossesd will slow throughout the rest ofthis year, and potentiallg turn positive by the end of the Wobbekind made his remarks as part of a midyear update on his 2009 economic originally forecast in December 2008. Colorado likely will lose 55,009 to 65,000 jobs in 2009, Wobbekind said in his updates forecast. That’s far more than the 4,300-jobv loss he expected last December.
“In the firstf part of this year, we’ve more than lost the jobs createcd in the previoustwo years,” he “It’s going to take at leastt the next two years to recover thosed lost jobs.” Hiring in the educationao and health care services sector has been slightlgy positive in 2009, mostly because employers were still fillingh a backlog of needed hireds in areas such as nursing, Wobbekind said.
The natural resourcez and mining sector is but could potentially see some positiv job growth if energy explorationm in thestate increases, he “There are some jobs being created, but pretty much across the boarf the sectors are takingt a very hard hit,” he said. Amonvg the most affected sectors has been the professiona and business services which includesmany high-paying jobs such as lawyers, computer systems designers and scientific research and development “The single most surprising area and the one that has had the largestr job loss has been in professional and businesss services,” Wobbekind said.
“It’s been a very important category for jobs during the last severakl years as the economy has surgedeand it’s been one that has been hit surprisinglg hard in this downturn, at leasy by our assessment and by many The leisure and hospitality sector saw very weak retaio numbers for the first four months of the year, especially in mountaih resort towns. The rest of the year is expectec tobe weak, but should improvde compared with the first four months of the the statement said.
“This is not going to be a greatg year for tourism byany means, but it probabl will get a littlse better going forward than it was in the beginninyg of this year,” he The Leeds Business Confidence Index did show an uptick recently, suggesting improvement in the third quarter. Aftert plunging to a record low in the firsty quarterof 2009, the forward-lookin LBCI surged upward, from 35.5 to 47.5 for the thirsd quarter of 2009. All six index components postedsteeo gains, and two of the for the state economy and sales, passed the neutrakl mark of 50. However, overall, the LBCI remainsz below 50 as leaders expressed continuer concernsabout profits, hiring and capital expenditures.