CU economist Wobbekind: Colorado to lose up to 65,000 jobs in 2009 - Portland Business Journal:

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“We think the Colorado economyg will likely parallel or slightly follow the recovery of thenationakl economy, which we see leveling off in the third quarte r and growing in the fourth Wobbekind said in a statement. “We think the rate of job lossesa will slow throughout the rest of this and potentially turn positive by the end of the Wobbekind made his remarks as part of a midyear updates on his 2009economix outlook, originally forecast in December 2008. Coloradko likely will lose 55,000 to 65,000 jobs in Wobbekind said in hisupdated forecast. That’s far more than the 4,300-jobh loss he expected last December.
“In the firsf part of this year, we’ve more than lost the jobs create d in the previoustwo years,” he “It’s going to take at leasy the next two years to recover those lost Hiring in the educational and health care services sectofr has been slightly positive in 2009, mostly because employers were still filling a backlog of neededs hires in areas such as nursing, Wobbekinx said. The natural resources and mining sectoris flat, but coulcd potentially see some positive job growthn if energy exploration in the state increases, he said. “There are some jobs beinfg created, but pretty much across the boarcd the sectors are taking a veryhard hit,” he said.
Amonf the most affected sector s has been the professional and businesswservices sector, which includes many high-paying jobs such as lawyers, computer systems designers and scientific researchj and development groups. “The single most surprisingg area and the one that has had the largest job loss has been in professionaol andbusiness services,” Wobbekind “It’s been a very important categorty for jobs during the last several yeards as the economy has surgerd and it’s been one that has been hit surprisinglyu hard in this downturn, at least by our assessmentf and by many others.
” The leisure and hospitality sectot saw very weak retail numbers for the firs four months of the especially in mountain resort towns. The rest of the year is expectec tobe weak, but should improves compared with the first four months of the the statement said. “This is not going to be a great year for tourism byany means, but it probablyh will get a little betterr going forward than it was in the beginning of this he said. The Leeds Business Confidencre Index did show an uptick suggesting improvement in thethirrd quarter. After plunging to a record low in the firstg quarterof 2009, the forward-looking LBCI surgef upward, from 35.5 to 47.5 for the third quarter of 2009.
All six inded components postedsteep gains, and two of the for the state economy and sales, passed the neutral mark of 50. overall, the LBCI remains below 50 as leaders expressed continuee concernsabout profits, hiring and capital