Layoffs soar to 20,500 in Colorado
By Kris Hudson
Denver Post Business Writer
Monday, September 03, 2001 - Employers have let go a reported 20,500 workers in Colorado so far this year, with the largest losses coming in the technology and telecommunications industries.
If assembled, 20,500 people would eclipse the population of Castle Rock. They could fill the Pepsi Center for a basketball game - leaving more than 2,000 standing without a seat.
That number of people could form a line, holding hands, that stretches along U.S. 36 from I-25 to the outskirts of Boulder.
The Post assembled the state's layoff tally by tracking and verifying the number of layoffs reported by news media and reviewing layoffs reported by the Colorado Department of Labor and the Colorado Springs Economic Development Corp. The actual number of cuts in the state likely is higher due to unreported layoffs by privately held companies.
Colorado's tally of reported layoffs edged upward last month due in part to 600 job cuts by bankrupt telecommunications company Rhythms NetConnections, 400 by Agilent Technologies, 200 by data firm Relera and 95 by defunct ski manufacturer Volant. The year-to-date tally handily outpaces last year's total of at least 6,000 reported cuts.
"It's basically very challenging," Englewood job-seeker Donald Edwards said of the local job market. "There just doesn't seem to be the amount of openings, especially in telecommunications, that there were a year ago."
Edwards has landed an average of two job interviews a month since his layoff from the Denver office of wireless Internet company United Online in January. He saw two job offers rescinded days before he was scheduled to start work. So far, Edwards' savings and his wife's salary have supported their household expenses.
"I'm being a bit particular," Edwards said of his job search. "But that time is coming to an end."
60,000 jobs created
Economists note that Colorado's unemployment rate of 2.9 percent in June still falls well below the national rate of 4.5 percent. However, those numbers likely will rise as laid-off workers exhaust severance payments from their former employers.
The Colorado Department of Labor tracked a 30 percent increase in jobless claims from June to July to nearly 13,400. The figure represents the number of Colorado residents actively drawing unemployment benefits.
"What we're seeing is that unemployment numbers are being revised up and they're moving above 3 percent," US Bank economist Tucker Hart Adams said last week. "That's still really low, but it has moved up almost a full percentage point now from its low point last year.
"That says to me that ... people are out of jobs a little bit longer," she said. "When you add that to what we're seeing in the Denver housing market - with the inventory of homes for sale increasing and people not getting their asking prices - we are really starting to feel the impact of the slower economy."
By many accounts, the Colorado job market remains tight for technical and telecom workers. However, Colorado has recorded job growth in the retail, services and local government sectors, contributing to a modest 2.8 percent job-growth rate, according to the University of Colorado's Business Research Division.
"There are about 60,000 new jobs in the state" from June 2000 to June 2001, said Rich Wobbekind, the division's director. "And I'm still optimistic that we'll have an OK year for job growth."
Among the companies still hiring are Littleton satellite-television operator EchoStar Communications Corp. with 500 Colorado job openings and Louisville data-storage company Storage Technology Corp. with three dozen. Qwest Communications International has an undisclosed number of job openings in Colorado, even after completing thousands of job cuts related to its merger with US West.
"I'd say we've seen a doubling of our applicant flow in terms of resumes coming into the organization on a daily basis," StorageTek talent-acquisition director E.J. Meier said.
Some job-market observers commented that medical specialists are in high demand.
However, the market for some technical jobs has done a 180-degree flip from a year ago. Of the state's reported layoffs so far this year, 6,500 came at technology companies and more than 7,000 came at telecom companies.
A sign of the times: A job fair hosted by the Colorado Technical Recruiters Network at the Marriott Denver Tech Center last month attracted an estimated 1,200 job-seekers but only 11 employers.
"I keep hearing it's going to get better, but every time I turn around, they say we're one more indicator from a recession," said Peter Heyer, a Littleton-based telecom recruiter looking for work himself. "I don't know how much more it can bottom out, to be honest."
Gradual recovery forecast
Jeff Leavitt, president of the technical recruiters network and chief executive of Colorado Springs-based technical recruiting firm TechStart, predicts a slow and gradual recovery for the technical hiring market next year.
"Most of the companies I talk to about hiring plans are indicating they won't even consider adding new positions before the first quarter of next year," Leavitt said. "It appears that, if there's any new hiring happening, it's typically to backfill attrition or retirement."
Adams, the US Bank economist, sees an economic recovery in the second half of next year.
"I still don't anticipate serious (economic) problems," she said. "But if you lose your job and you have a lot of credit-card debts, you'll start missing your bills and you'll have to cut your spending. We'll start seeing those things affect consumer spending, and that's all that's (supporting) the economy right now." |
