Northern/Upstate Colorado Has Significant Labor Resources

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Study Shows Northern/Upstate Colorado Area Has Significant Labor Resources to Meet the Needs of New and Expanding Business

Date: December 4, 2007

Contact: Larry Burkhardt

356-4565

Maury Dobbie, Northern Colorado Economic Development Corporation

(970) 667-0905

A study funded by a broad local partnership shows that the Northern/Upstate Colorado area can respond to the primary need of new or expanding businesses that being available workers. A recently-completed Labor Availability Report concludes that a significant number of individuals within the study area are qualified and are willing to accept better jobs. The study defines these workers as underemployed.

Partners involved with the project include:

State of Colorado Office of Workforce Development
Upstate Colorado Economic Development
Northern Colorado Economic Development Corporation
City of Greeley
City of Fort Collins
City of Loveland
Employment Services of Weld County
Larimer County Workforce Center
Colorado State University
University of Northern Colorado

The Report, commissioned by the partnership and completed by The Pathfinders, represents the first time that this type of labor information has been available, and demonstrates the extent of regional cooperation in place for the purposes of stimulating economic development. Project costs were shared by the partners, with the State of Colorado Office of Workforce Development providing an $8,000 seed grant in support of the Report.

The Report assessed the workforce in an area within a 30-mile radius from the intersection of US Highway 34 and Interstate 25. The area, or laborshed, includes major portions of Weld, Larimer and Boulder Counties, as well as minor portions of Adams and Broomfield Counties. The sample area has a population of approximately 685,800, and a civilian labor force of approximately 383,900.

The Report, which included a statistically-valid telephone sample of area residents, concludes that the area has a pool of 15,800 unemployed persons actively seeking work, and an additional 24,800 workers who are currently employed and have indicated an interest in changing jobs. In addition, the Report found that 5,300 people, neither employed nor seeking work, might re-enter the workforce for the right position.

About 25% of the available workforce would take a new job for $13.99 per hour or less. The 25% most qualified and experienced workers will command more than $26.51 per hour.

Given the competitive nature of economic development, we are pleased with the regional cooperation that made this Report possible. It is a significant marketing tool that is available in only a relatively few communities across the country. Its findings will go a long way toward defining our region to employers interested in a Colorado business location, said Larry Burkhardt, President/CEO of Upstate Colorado Economic Development.

We believe that if most people are given an opportunity to better themselves and their families, they will take advantage of opportunities to retrain and reskill. Going forward, we are bringing together all organizations that can reskill people alongside primary employers. We're listening to those employers and what their needs are, then the key is to have a job waiting for the person who has been retrained. We're taking a common-sense and practical approach to building wealth in our communities one family at a time, stated Maury Dobbie, President/CEO of Northern Colorado Economic Development Corporation, one of the partners in the underemployment study.

In addition to surveying local residents, The Pathfinders conducted interviews with nineteen local employers with a combined employment of over 25,000 workers. The employers responses to the interview questions, which focused on skills, availability, productivity, turnover and other factors, indicate an overall favorable evaluation of the local labor pool.

The Pathfinders is a Dallas-based consulting firm that has completed similar studies for more than 100 communities around the country in the past several years.