{"id":35060,"date":"2023-03-25T10:22:59","date_gmt":"2023-03-25T16:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/after-losing-jobs-in-january-colorados-job-market-picked-back-up-in-february\/"},"modified":"2023-03-25T16:22:59","modified_gmt":"2023-03-25T16:22:59","slug":"after-losing-jobs-in-january-colorados-job-market-picked-back-up-in-february","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/after-losing-jobs-in-january-colorados-job-market-picked-back-up-in-february\/","title":{"rendered":"After losing jobs in January, Colorado\u2019s job market picked back up in February"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Amazon
Amazon workers at the company\u2019s facility on Himalaya Road in Aurora sort and then move trolleys loaded with packages to an area where they will be loaded on trucks for delivery Dec. 6, 2022.<\/span>Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado\u2019s job market picked up in February following a lackluster January.<\/p>\n

The state added 6,200 nonfarm jobs last month, according to the most recent data from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. That\u2019s an improvement compared to month before when Colorado lost 700 jobs, the data show.<\/p>\n

The construction sector suffered many of the losses in January<\/a>. It\u2019s an industry especially vulnerable to bad weather, according to state economist Ryan Gedney.<\/p>\n

The unemployment rate climbed slightly from 2.8% to 2.9 %. But at the same time, more people joined the workforce in February, Gedney noted. The Boulder area had the lowest rate at 2.7%, while Pueblo was on the opposite end of the spectrum at 4.6%.<\/p>\n

The job market, both nationally and in Colorado, is holding up reasonably well to the Federal Reserve\u2019s campaign to get inflation under control by raising interest rates. Higher interest rates make it more expensive to borrow money, which should eventually bring prices under control. But at the same time, those higher rates cut into spending power and make it harder for businesses to grow and invest, leading to job losses.<\/p>\n

Economists have watched the job market for signs of a recession for the past year. It hasn\u2019t yet arrived, but the odds of a downturn appear to be going up, Gedney said during a conference call with reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly something I\u2019m looking at,\u201d Gedney said. \u201cBut at this point, I\u2019m still expecting the status quo until we see otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some parts of the economy, like technology and housing, have slowed. Large layoffs at companies like Amazon and Facebook are making headlines across the U.S. On top of that, recent turmoil in the banking industry is putting people on edge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s \u2026 friction within the banking sector, friction within the tech sector,\u201d Gedney said.<\/p>\n

In fact, during the past 12 months, the financial activities sector in Colorado shed 3,600 jobs. By comparison, the leisure and hospitality sector added 19,200 jobs during the same time frame.<\/p>\n

On a monthly basis, the financial sector showed no change in the number of jobs in February. The accommodations and food service sector led gains with 1,900 roles added, followed by government, with 1,800 new roles.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

added 6,200 nonfarm jobs last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,11,1255,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-economy-general","tag-employment","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35060"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}