Colorado primed for 2011 but will shed jobs this year.

• Author: Cote, Mike
• Position: [ECONOMY]

Colorado will fare better in 2010 but will continue to lose jobs, CU's economist says.

The state's economy will return to stability, however, setting the stage for sustained growth in 2011 and 2012, according to Richard Wobbekind of the University of Colorado at Boulder's Leeds School of Business.

Wobbekind's announcement was part of the 45th annual Colorado Business Economic Outlook Forum hosted in December by CU-Boulder's Leeds School of Business and BBVA Compass bank.

"It's clear that the worst is behind us," Wobbekind told several hundred people at the Grand Hyatt in Denver as he concluded a presentation of the highlights. "And we all truly believe that."

The forecast calls for a loss of 3,200 jobs in 2010, compared with the 100,000 jobs the state lost in 2009. Job losses will continue through the first quarter, before leveling off in the second quarter and moving into positive growth in the third and fourth quarters, according to Wobbekind.

As bleak as that sounds, Colorado will continue to be one of the nation's bright spots.

"Even with a minus 3,000, we would be somewhere in the top 10 in the country," Wobbekind said.

The economist noted that the past decade has been marked by poor job creation, with just 117,900 jobs added since 2000, while Colorado's population increased by 870,000.

"Over the last decade we really haven't generated the number of jobs that we need for the growing population of this state," Wobbekind said in a statement issued before the release of the report. "Our recent job growth is very low compared to the past three decades."

Unlike the 2002-03 recession--which...