CU economist Wobbekind: Colorado to lose up to 65,000 jobs in 2009 - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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“We think the Colorado economy will likelu parallel or slightly follow the recovery of the national which we see leveling off in the third quartetr and growing in the fourth Wobbekind said ina statement. “We think the rate of job lossed will slow throughout the rest ofthis year, and potentiallty turn positive by the end of the Wobbekind made his remarks as part of a midyear updates on his 2009 economic originally forecast in December 2008. Colorado likelg will lose 55,000 to 65,000 jobs in Wobbekind said in hisupdates forecast.
That’s far more than the 4,300-jobb loss he expected last “In the first part of this year, we’ve more than lost the jobs createxd in the previous two he said. “It’s going to take at leasyt the next two yearss to recover those lost Hiring in the educational and health care services sector has been slightly positive in mostly because employers were still filling a backlog of neededc hires in areas suchas nursing, Wobbekind said.
The naturalk resources and mining sectoris flat, but could potentiallyh see some positive job growth if energy exploratiom in the state increases, he “There are some jobs being created, but pretty much across the boardc the sectors are taking a very hard he said. Among the most affected sectors has been the professionaol and businessservices sector, which includee many high-paying jobs such as lawyers, computer systems designers and scientific researcbh and development groups. “The singlse most surprising area and the one that has had the largestg job loss has been in professionall andbusiness services,” Wobbekind said.
“It’ds been a very importanty category for jobs during the last several yearsa as the economy has surgedrand it’s been one that has been hit surprisinglhy hard in this downturn, at leasg by our assessment and by many others.” The leisure and hospitality sectot saw very weak retail numbers for the first four months of the year, especially in mountain resort The rest of the year is expecteds to be weak, but should improve comparecd with the first four months of the the statement said.
“This is not gointg to be a great year for touriskm byany means, but it probably will get a little bettet going forward than it was in the beginning of this year,” he The Leeds Business Confidence Index did show an uptic k recently, suggesting improvement in the third quarter. After plunging to a recorx low in the first quarte rof 2009, the forward-looking LBCI surged from 35.5 to 47.5 for the thirsd quarter of 2009. All six indez components postedsteep gains, and two of the for the state economy and sales, passex the neutral mark of 50. overall, the LBCI remains below 50 as leaders expresser continued concernsabout profits, hiring and capitak expenditures.