Colorado job counts rose by a robust 12,200 in February from January, but the unemployment rate stayed steady at 4.2 percent as more people joined the labor force, according to preliminary estimates Friday from the state Department of Labor and Employment.
The seasonally adjusted gain of 12,200 included 8,200 private-sector and 4,000 public-sector jobs. February’s monthly increase, if it holds up, would be the strongest in the state since March 2000, at the very peak of the dot-com boom.
Alexandra Hall, the state’s chief labor economist, expressed skepticism that such a big monthly increase would hold up on revision.
“In 2014, once or twice, we had gains that were this strong, but they were revised away,” she said.
Broomfield economist Gary Horvath, who closely tracks the state’s labor market, also called the outsized gains suspect and probably the result of an aberration in the models the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to make estimates.
“There is nothing that happened on the streets of Colorado that would cause such a spike in employment,” he said.
In particular, government hiring raises red flags, with 4,000 jobs added in February from January on a seasonally adjusted basis. Year over year, the total gain is only 4,700 positions.
Not adjusting for seasonality, government payroll counts rose by a huge 14,200 positions in February from January.
Also, February normally isn’t considered a big hiring month in Colorado. Going back to 1990, February ranks eighth among months, with a seasonally adjusted monthly gain that averages 3,300 jobs.
But employers are hiring, and Horvath said the state economy seems to be tracking with the momentum it had in the second half of last year.
Hall said that raises her hopes that workers let go in the oil and gas industry will find opportunities elsewhere.
“Many of those people will move into other industries with only a short period of unemployment,” she predicted.
Construction firms added 3,900 jobs in February on a monthly basis and 16,900 on an annual basis, making it the biggest hirer in the state. Manufacturing also had a strong showing, as did trade and transportation, education and health care, and leisure and hospitality.
Employment in mining, which includes oil and gas extraction, was flat in February from January but is still up 3,600 jobs on an annual basis.
The number of , according to a report Monday from IHS Global Insight.
Weld County, which has the highest concentration of drilling activity in the state, and neighboring Larimer County showed a drop in the number of payroll jobs in February from January.
The state’s unemployment rate in February remained steady at 4.2 percent, where it has been since December. The U.S. unemployment rate in February was at 5.5 percent.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or twitter.com/aldosvaldi
