Colorado’s unemployment rate plunged last month to levels not seen since before the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Out of 11 employment sectors, nine gained jobs, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment reported Tuesday.
“We are hiring like crazy, and I need more employees,” said John Beggins, chief executive of Specialized Loan Servicing, a Highlands Ranch mortgage service provider. “We are having a tough time attracting as many people as we need.”
Rodney Felton, a corporate trainer, was unemployed for a day before starting a new job with Beggins’ company.
“It was almost a perfect transition,” he said.
The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.6 percent, the lowest since September 2001 and down from November’s 5 percent rate and a 5.4 percent rate a year earlier.
“That is an unusually strong dip,” said Joseph Winter, a senior labor department economist. “I don’t think it is a mirage.”
Nonfarm payrolls grew by 40,300 positions last year, the strongest showing since 2000 but still below the pace seen in the late 1990s.
Professional and business services was the strongest sector in the state, adding 10,400 jobs in areas such as temporary help, accounting and administrative services.
Construction hiring also was strong, with 8,200 jobs gained over the past 12 months. Following a seasonal pattern, the state lost 3,400 construction jobs in December but was up for the year.
On a percentage basis, natural resources and mining was the state’s fastest-growing sector, boosting payrolls 9.8 percent. But given the sector’s small size, that translated into only 1,500 jobs.
Deep snow in the mountains contributed to a strong showing by leisure and hospitality, which added 12,200 jobs in December alone, Winter said. For the year, the sector added 4,800 jobs.
On the downside for 2005, information providers shed 3,900 jobs for a 4.9 percent decline. Manufacturing dropped 3,000 positions for a 1.9 percent decline.
The strong growth in business hiring could point to more technology jobs as new workers get equipped with computers and other gear, Winter said.
Given that the state remains below total payroll employment levels reached in late 2000 and 2001, the jobs report was nothing to pop champagne corks over, said Tucker Hart Adams, a regional economist with U.S. Bank, whose outlook for the economy in recent years has been more pessimistic than most.
But she is encouraged that the state’s job machine didn’t lose steam as the year went on.
The size of the state’s seasonally adjusted civilian labor force remained virtually flat last year at 2.54 million workers. And the state’s unemployment rolls shrank by 18,800 on a seasonally adjusted basis.
So who filled the remaining jobs?
People who in the past may have described themselves as self-employed rather than unemployed are the likely candidates, Adams said. Given the chance to take a “real job,” they appear to have jumped at the opportunity.
Specialized Loan Servicing, which started operations Aug. 1., 2003, hired 100 people in 2005 and is looking to add 200 this year, Beggins said.
“We are the people that you would send your loan payment to, and we process the cash, report to investors, escrow for taxes and insurance, and comply with all regulatory requirements,” he said.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-820-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
