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FINANCE, INSURANCE & REAL ESTATE
(60 - 67)

Employment change from last quarter+ 2.1
Employment change from year ago+ 6.9
Wage change from year ago+24.0

QUARTERLY

FIRE employment rose by 2.1% over last quarter adding 2688 employees. The largest employment gain occurred in Credit Agencies (61) up 965. The majority of the increase is attributed to service increases in Mortgage Bankers & Brokers resulting from increased pressures to finance and refinance home mortgages following decreases in the lending rate. Quarterly gains are the largest ever recorded for this sector. Insurance Carriers (63) added 774 employees. Title Insurance within Insurance Carriers added 281 employees and Fire Marine & Casualty added 210. In each sector one employer expanded adding about 80 workers. All other gains were small and spread over a number of businesses. Life Insurance grew by 159 employees with expansions occurring mainly in two companies. Employment in Banking (60) grew by 363. Commercial banks expanded staff over the quarter and credit unions saw the start up of a new union and expansion of an existing one. Insurance Agents (64) was the only sector to register a quarterly employment decline dropping by 18. No noticeable sector change was evident.


ANNUAL

Annual growth in FIRE rose at the rate of 6.9% adding 8437 employees. Insurance Carriers (63) reported the largest gain over the year up by 2504 employees. Within Insurance Carriers the strongest growing sectors were Fire, Marine & Casualty Insurance up 720 and Title Insurance up 617. Growth in Fire Marine & Casualty predominated in Weld and El Paso counties due to expansions of existing businesses. Growth in Title Insurance has been steady throughout the year but slightly more active in this quarter. Increases were mainly in the Front Range with Denver and Arapahoe counties showing the strongest gains. Credit Agencies (61) reported the second largest gain up 2402 employees. Better than 85% of the growth or 2076 employees were added by service expansions and the addition of many new companies to Mortgage Bankers & Brokers. Still another indication of the health of the economy and the activity generated from low interest rates is the gain witnessed in Real Estate (65) up 1209 employees. About 750 of the gain occurred in Real Estate Agents & Managers.

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Colorado Employment and Wages (ES202) Second Quarter 1998