Colorado added 6,200 jobs in February, marking the 28th consecutive month of job growth, according to a report Friday by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
Earlier this month, state officials said Colorado’s economy added jobs at a 3 percent clip in 2013 — the strongest growth rate since 2000 — fueled by a surge in hiring in oil and gas and construction.
Alexandra Hall, chief economist for the Colorado Department of Labor, said Friday that newly revised figures show the nation is doing better economically than originally thought and that bodes well for Colorado, where job growth has significantly outpaced the national average.
Year-over-year in February, Hall said, Colorado’s job growth rate was 2.8 percent compared with a national job growth rate of 1.6 percent.
“As long as we do well at the national level, we can pretty much count on Colorado growing faster than the nation,” said Hall.
The addition of the 6,200 jobs continues a trend of Colorado growing at a faster rate than the nation that began in early 2011, she said.
“We are staying at a very healthy growth- rate level above the national,” Hall said.
Broomfield economist Gary Horvath said Friday that the addition of so many jobs in February is a good omen for the rest of the year, with the state on track to have one of its best years in 2014 for adding jobs.
“I think the number of jobs will increase at the same percentage rate or greater (than 2013), which would mean we would add over 70,000 jobs in 2014,” Horvath said. “That would make it one of the top-10 years the state has had in terms of job growth since they began counting in 1939.”
Of the 6,200 jobs added in February, the private sector added 5,400 and government increased 800.
“We have a very diverse base of companies that are all growing right now,” Horvath said.
That diverse economy includes the natural resources — mining, oil and gas — as well as agriculture, tourism and high-tech. They increase jobs both in rural Colorado and in the state’s metropolitan areas, Horvath said.
Hall said overall improvements in labor market conditions were seen across the entire state.
“The labor force situation really improved over all areas of the state, with the number of people in the labor force increasing in almost all of the areas,” said the state economist. “And the number of people reporting themselves as employed increased in almost all areas.”
The report said Colorado’s unemployment rate in February was 6.1 percent, the same as January’s unemployment rate. The national unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in February.
But Horvath said the unemployment rate is inconsequential.
“To me, that rate doesn’t matter,” he said. “Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rate decreases from a year earlier and one state had no change. So everyone is better off than they were a year ago in terms of unemployment.
“That says to me that we are no longer talking about coming out of the recession,” Horvath said. “We’re out of the recession and we are moving forward.
In Colorado, the largest annual increases were in business and professional services — engineering, architectural and legal — with 17,800 jobs added; leisure and hospitality with 11,900; government, 8,800; and education and health services with 8,600 additional jobs.
In the oil and gas area, 200 jobs were added in February and 2,000 over the year.
“That is pretty impressive given the employment base in that industry in February 2013 was 29,800,” said Hall. The number is now 31,800 — a growth rate of 6.7 percent.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939, hpankratz@denverpost.com or twitter.com/howardpankratz
