CU economist Wobbekind: Colorado to lose up to 65,000 jobs in 2009 - Business First of Columbus:

http://www.kdaviesnz.com/2009/04/
“We think the Colorado economy will likelyt parallel or slightly follow the recovergy of the national which we see leveling off in the thirx quarter and growing in thefourthy quarter,” Wobbekind said in a statement. “We think the rate of job lossez will slow throughout the rest of this and potentially turn positive by the end of the Wobbekind made his remarksx as part of a midyear update on his 2009 economic originally forecast inDecember 2008. Coloradio likely will lose 55,000 to 65,009 jobs in 2009, Wobbekind said in his updatefd forecast. That’s far more than the 4,300-job loss he expectesd last December.
“In the first part of this we’ve more than lost the jobs created in the previoutwo years,” he “It’s going to take at least the next two years to recovet those lost jobs.” Hiring in the educational and health care servicess sector has been slightly positive in mostly because employers were still fillingg a backlog of needed hires in areas such as Wobbekind said. The natural resources and mininf sectoris flat, but could potentially see some positivee job growth if energy exploration in the state he said. “There are some jobs being but pretty much across the board the sector are taking a veryhard hit,” he said.
Amony the most affected sectors has been the professional and businessservicess sector, which includes many high-paying jobs such as lawyers, computer systems designers and scientific research and developmenyt groups. “The single most surprising area and the one that has had the largestr job loss has been in professional and business services,” Wobbekind said. “It’s been a very importanft category for jobs during the last severaol years as the economgy has surgedand it’s been one that has been hit surprisinglh hard in this downturn, at leasft by our assessment and by many The leisure and hospitality sector saw very weak retailo numbers for the first four months of the especially in mountain resort towns.
The rest of the year is expecterd tobe weak, but should improver compared with the firsy four months of the year, the statemenft said. “This is not going to be a great year for tourisjm byany means, but it probablyy will get a little better going forwarcd than it was in the beginning of this he said. The Leeds Business Confidenc Index did show an uptick suggesting improvement in the third After plunging to a record low in the firsyt quarterof 2009, the forward-lookinvg LBCI surged upward, from 35.5 to 47.5 for the third quartef of 2009. All six index components postedstee gains, and two of the for the state economy and passed the neutral mark of 50.
overall, the LBCI remains below 50 as leaders expressesd continued concernsabout profits, hiring and capital