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FIRST QUARTER 1998 IN REVIEW
ALL INDUSTRIES

Employment change from last quarter- 0.6
Employment change from year ago+ 4.3
Wage change from year ago+12.4

QUARTERLY

Typically, Colorado employment dipped this quarter losing 12,400 employees. Seven out of the ten industries lost employment. Losses were seasonal, defined by the post Christmas slowdown, cold weather and winter school break effecting Retail, Agriculture, Construction, Mining and Government. Activity relative to the ski and tax seasons positively influenced both the FIRE and the Services industries. In terms of percentages Agriculture reported the largest change dropping 13.8% and 3640 employees. Retail reported the largest number change dropping 7470 employees. Wholesale employment took a hit this quarter as SIC changes implemented in January moved almost 1800 out of the industry. For the quarter, Wholesale shows a loss of 1831 employees. FIRE enjoyed the largest percent increase up 1.4% adding 1757 new employees. Staff expansions in all phases of insurance and seasonal additions for real estate management in ski areas influenced the growth. Services, up 4067, added the greatest number of employees with increases due to seasonal hiring in Amusement & Recreation and Hotels & Lodging.


ANNUAL

Annually, Colorado’s economy is still reflecting robust health as employment grew 81,087, or 4.3%. Services continues to out-perform other industries having added 38,446 employees. Close to half of the growth resulted from increased demand for computer programming and consulting and temporary staff. Low mortgage and interest rates affected large gains in Construction, up 10,998 employees. Mining, which has suffered many losses in the past, recorded the smallest annual gain, adding only 469 employees. Increased activity in oil and gas services over the last two quarters and increased demand for construction cement has improved annual employment in this industry.

One third of the employers covered by unemployment insurance are surveyed each year to determine that they are properly classified by :

1. Standard Industrial Classification (SIC), a code that identifies the type of product or services produced by a business; and
2. County, each business is assigned a three digit code according to the county in which it operates.
This year one third of employers were selected by Federal Identification number (FEIN), a deviation from the process in previous years when employers were selected by industry code. SIC or county changes are made to first quarter data only, but the impact of those changes may be evident throughout the year, particularly when data are compared to the previous year. All industry groups are affected as FEIN’s cross industry categories and a business may be moved from one industry into any other industry for proper classification. The impact of change is determined by the overall SIC change in employment and wage in each industry.

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Colorado Employment and Wages (ES202) First Quarter 1998