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Colorado in 1994


Increases in covered employment have shown strong growth each of the last three years, reflecting the strength of the Colorado economy in the first half of the 1990's. The 1994 growth showed the second highest increase for Colorado up 84,377. The highest increase was in 1978, at about 91,800. This increase of 5.1 percent matches that of ten years ago in 1984. The employment growth in 1993 was 74,357 or 4.7 percent.



A breakdown of growth by major industry reveals that trends in 1994 are very similar to those in 1993. Construction continues to show the strongest rate of increase of the major divisions. Construction rose 12.9 percent, down from the 15.0 percent increase last year. Again in second place Agriculture rose 8.7 percent. Services, Retail and Wholesale Trade are next with increases of 7.1, 6.5 and 5.6 percent. Higher growth in Services and Retail Trade had a combined increase of 52,580, helping to push the total statewide increase higher than last year. Transportation, Communication and Public Utilities increased 4.0 percent, little change from last year, while the increase in Finance, Insurance and Real Estate dropped from a 6.3 percent increase last year to 3.9 percent. Manufacturing had stronger growth at 2.0 percent, and Government was slower, up 1.0 percent. Mining was the only industry that lost employment for two years running, down 2.5 percent.

Colorado has been at the forefront of the strong national economy in 1994. In addition to healthy employment increases, Colorado continues to be a popular place to migrate to and continues to have highly favorable business conditions. Unless the national economy slows drastically, Colorado should continue to have strong growth in the coming year



Average Employment Changes: 1993 to 1994
STATEWIDE+ 84,377+ 5.1 %
AGRICULTURE+ 1,875+ 8.7 %
MINING- 395- 2.5 %
CONSTRUCTION+ 11,112+12.9 %
MANUFACTURING+ 3,736+ 2.0 %
TCPU+ 3,944+ 4.0 %
WHOLESALE+ 4,865+ 5.6 %
RETAIL+ 20,766+ 6.5 %
FIRE+ 4,077+ 3.9 %
SERVICES+ 31,814+ 7.1 %
GOVERNMENT+ 2,782+ 1.0 %



 19901991199219931994
Statewide1,503,6211,526,3821,579,6341,653,9911,738,368
Metro Denver828,040839,058862,369895,077930,824
Bal. of State675,581687,324717,265758,914807,544