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

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“We think the Coloradol economy will likely parallepl or slightly follow the recovery of the national which we see leveling off in the third quarter and growingy in thefourth quarter,” Wobbekind said in a “We think the rate of job losse will slow throughout the rest of this and potentially turn positive by the end of the year.” Wobbekine made his remarks as part of a midyeare update on his 2009 economidc outlook, originally forecast in December 2008. Coloradp likely will lose 55,000 to 65,000 jobs in 2009, Wobbekindr said in his updated forecast. That’s far more than the 4,300-joh loss he expected last December.
“In the first part of this year, we’ved more than lost the jobs created in the previoudstwo years,” he said. “It’s going to take at least the next two yearw to recover thoselost jobs.” Hiring in the educationalp and health care services sector has been slightlyu positive in 2009, mostly because employers were still filling a backloh of needed hires in areas such as Wobbekind said. The natural resources and mining sectotris flat, but could potentially see some positive job growthn if energy exploration in the state increases, he said.
“There are some jobs beingf created, but pretty much across the board the sectoras are taking a veryhard hit,” he said. Amongt the most affected sectors has been the professional and businessserviceds sector, which includes many high-paying jobs such as lawyers, engineers, computeer systems designers and scientific researcbh and development groups. “The single most surprisinh area and the one that has had the largesf job loss has been in professionall andbusiness services,” Wobbekind said.
“It’s been a very important categorgy for jobs during the last several years as the economy has surgeedand it’s been one that has been hit surprisingly hard in this at least by our assessment and by many The leisure and hospitality sector saw very weak retai numbers for the first four monthe of the year, especially in mountain resort towns. The rest of the year is expectede tobe weak, but should improve compared with the firsty four months of the year, the statemenf said. “This is not going to be a greaft year for tourism byany means, but it probablg will get a little better going forward than it was in the beginningv of this year,” he said.
The Leed s Business Confidence Index did show anupticok recently, suggesting improvement in the thirrd quarter. After plunging to a recored low in the first quarter of the forward-looking LBCI surged upward, from 35.5 to 47.5 for the thired quarter of 2009. All six index components postedsteep gains, and two of the components, for the statre economy and sales, passed the neutral mark of 50. However, the LBCI remains below 50 as leaders expressede continued concernsabout profits, hiring and capital