Manufacturing – one of the state’s most beaten-down sectors – is showing signs of a rebound.
Colorado manufacturers added 1,100 payroll jobs in August, accounting for more than a fifth of the 5,400 nonfarm jobs the state gained last month, according to a jobs report Wednesday from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
“It is a change from what has been horrible news for so long,” said Joseph Winter, a senior economist with the department.
Colorado’s overall unemployment rate, adjusted for seasonal changes, ticked up to 4.8 percent from 4.7 percent in July, representing 127,700 people seeking work. It’s down from 5.0 percent in August 2005.
The manufacturing job gains appear to be broad-based and not tied to large-scale hiring by a single employer, Winter said. Metal fabricators, which include machine shops, were among the stronger groups within manufacturing, he said.
Scott White, president of Denver Machine Shop, said his firm of 20 has added two welders this year, a big move for the 90- year-old company. Building replacement parts for equipment used in the natural resources and construction industries has kept the company busy.
From its employment peak in June 1998 through this May, Colorado manufacturers shed 44,700 jobs – about 23 percent of that sector.
This summer though, the sector added 3,500 payroll jobs – its best showing since 2000.
Export gains, especially for beef and computer chips, could help explain some of the job gains. Colorado exports are up 19 percent for the first seven months of the year to $725 million, said Jim Reis, president of the World Trade Center in Denver.
Colorado’s semiconductor exports, after falling by more than a third last year, are up 93 percent in the first seven months of the year, Reis said.
Beef exports, likewise, are up 57 percent through July, compared with the same period in 2005.
Japan banned U.S. beef imports in December 2003 after reports of mad cow disease. The ban was lifted in December.
Manufacturing activity nationally started on an upswing about 18 months ago, although it has flattened recently, said Rich Wobbekind, an economist with the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business in Boulder.
Educational and health services added 1,800 jobs in August as teachers returned to work.
Manufacturing; trade, transportation and utilities; and professional and business services each added more than a thousand jobs last month.
Construction, information and the “other services” category shed jobs.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
