This past summer the Colorado Workforce System released a report, Colorado Workforce Data Mining Project, which summarizes the industries, occupations, and economic factors that drive each of the state's 64 counties. The report, prepared by the BRD and peers at UCCS and CSU, provides a snapshot of similarities, differences, and challenges, as well as distinct competencies, between counties and regions of the state.
From an industry standpoint (based on two-digit NAICS codes), slightly more than half of the Colorado workers are employed in the following sectors:
· Government
· Retail Trade
· Accommodations and Food Services (AFS)
· Healthcare
· Professional and Technical Services (PTS)
The largest sector, Government, employs about 18% of total workers, followed by retail with approximately 11%. Roughly half of the government workers hold positions in K-12 or higher education.
The retail trade sector is important to government organizations throughout the state because retail sales taxes are a significant source of revenue for the state and local coffers.
From an occupational perspective (based on two-digit SOC codes), slightly more than half of the state's workers are employed in the following occupations:
- Office Administrative Support
- Sales
- Food Services
- Construction and Extraction
- Transportation
- Education
The Office Administrative Support occupations cross a broad range of industries, whereas sales and food services job are closely tied to the state's retail and hospitality industries. Construction and Extraction jobs have been driven by the overall growth of the state, as well as the most recent energy boom.
Another way to evaluate the importance of an industry or occupation is to compare its concentration using location quotients. At the two-digit NAICS level, 6 of 19 sectors can be considered sources of primary jobs (i.e., they have a location quotient greater than 1.2). From a total employment perspective, they rank as follows:
· PTS
· Construction
· Information
· Real Estate
· Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation (AER)
· Mining
The 6 sectors account for almost 23% of total employment. These sectors are significant to the state for different reasons:
· Together, the PTS, Information, and Manufacturing (which has a location quotient less than 1) sectors form the Advanced Technology cluster. Approximately 17% of total state employment can be attributed to these three sectors.
· The combination of the AER sector and AFS (which has a location quotient of 1.16) is the foundation of Colorado's tourism industry.
· The high concentration of the Construction and Real Estate sectors reflects the fact that the state population and workforce have expanded faster than most other parts of the country in recent years.
It is clear that different industries and occupations are critical to the state economy in unique ways. As the state moves out of the recession, it is essential that strong growth occur in industries and occupations that are primary in nature. In other words, these industries and occupations (or combinations of these industries and occupations) should have higher than average levels of compensation or location quotients above 1.2.
