Employment rose in all nine large counties in Colorado from December 2009 to December 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
The large counties are defined as those with employment of 75,000 or more as measured by 2009 annual average employment.
Regional Commissioner Stanley Suchman noted that five of these large counties reported employment growth exceeding the national average of 0.9 percent.
Weld County led the state with a 2.9 percent gain and ranked 11th among the 326 large counties in the nation.
Also ranking in the top 100 counties nationwide were Denver (1.9 percent, 41st); Larimer (1.7 percent, 52nd), and Boulder (1.3 percent, 93rd).
The report said that Arapahoe County’s employment growth of 1.1 percent was above average, ranking 116th in the nation.
Nationally, employment increased in 220 of the 326 large counties from December 2009 to December 2010.
Among the nine largest counties in Colorado, employment was highest in Denver (426,500) in December 2010.
Three other counties – Arapahoe, El Paso and Jefferson – had employment levels exceeding 200,000.
Together, these nine large counties accounted for 78.9 percent of total employment within the state.
The average wage in Jefferson County rose 6.4 percent, the fastest among Colorado’s large counties and well above the 3.0 percent increase for the nation.
Weld County closely followed with a 6.2 percent increase.
Average weekly wages in the state’s nine largest counties ranged from $1,215 in Denver county to $820 in Weld.Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
