The most significant revisions occurred in natural resources and construction and manufacturing, where 2009 job losses were 2,300 jobs and 3,100 jobs larger than previously estimated, respectively. In percentage terms, the 2009 job loss in natural resources and construction widened from 14.3 percent in the preliminary data to 16.6 percent in the benchmarked series, and losses in manufacturing grew from 6.7 percent to 10.3 percent in the benchmarked series. Overall, 2009 employment in nine of Metro Denver’s 11 industry supersectors was revised down during the benchmarking process.

Benchmarked data suggest the state’s total 2009 job loss reached 106,300, or nearly 17,000 more jobs than preliminary data suggested. With that shift, the state’s 2009 percentage job loss widened from 3.8 percent in the preliminary series to 4.5 percent in the benchmark series. Economists with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment say the 2009 benchmark revision was more than twice the size of any previous revision since 2004, and the benchmark revision reported at the national level was equally severe. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nation’s total 2009 employment was roughly one million jobs lower than preliminary data suggested.

The Monthly Economic Summary provides a snapshot of metro area economic activity, as well as its relationship to national and regional economic trends.

“I’m taking all of the money I earn from bell ringing, putting it toward nursing school,” she told 9News on Monday.

That job will pay her somewhere in the $8.50- to $9-an-hour range. And this year, there was more competition than ever for the 23 available slots in the Broomfield area.

Read the full story at 9news.com.

The unemployment rate hit its grimmest milestone yet, soaring above 10 percent for only the second time since the Great Depression. (Forbes)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that the unemployment rate had reached 10.2 percent in October, up from 9.8 percent in September. The number was worse than expected–economists had expected the rate to rise to only 9.9 percent.

The country lost 190,000 jobs in October. Compared with 201,000 in August and 219,000 in September, this was a slight improvement. Particularly hard-hit were manufacturing, which by other measures is rebounding; construction, which is not getting the boost from government stimulus that it needs; and retail, which ought to be ramping up for Christmas, not cutting back.

The number of unemployed people, however, increased by 558,000. In other words, the number of people entering the labor market was even larger than the number of people laid off.

There are now 15.7 million officially unemployed, and the 10.2 percent rate is the highest since April 1983. The early 1980s were the only other time since the Great Depression that the unemployment rate topped 10 percent. The rate peaked at 10.8 percent in November 1982.

Read the full story at forbes.com.

Don Mares is executive director of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. (University of Denver photo)

UNEMPLOYMENT IN COLORADO fell for a second month in September, to 7.0 percent, the state’s Department of Labor and Employment reported Wednesday. (Denver Business Journal)

“The worst is behind us here in Colorado,” said Donald Mares, the department’s executive director.

Mares added in a statement that “the trend of fewer job losses should continue in coming months.”

Read the full story at denver.bizjournals.com.

Job seekers now outnumber openings 6-to-1, the worst ratio since the government began tracking open positions in 2000. According to the Labor Department’s latest numbers, from July, only 2.4 million full-time permanent jobs were open, with 14.5 million people officially unemployed.

And even though the pace of layoffs is slowing, many companies remain anxious about growth prospects in the months ahead, making them reluctant to add to their payrolls.

“There’s too much uncertainty out there,” said Thomas A. Kochan, a labor economist at M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management. “There’s not going to be an upsurge in job openings for quite a while, not until employers feel confident the economy is really growing.”

Click here for The New York Times story.

Since August, Fort Collins-based Center Partners has hired 200 employees and now it’s looking to hire 500 more.

The option to hire 700 additional employees at the call center was made possible back in June, when Center Partners completed a successful sales campaign.

Click here for the Fort Collins Coloradoan story.

“We really need to be focused on trying to restore confidence in this economy to see jobs created again: That’s were stimulus missed the mark,” the Virginia congressman says. “The bill was not calibrated correctly in terms of creating jobs.”

Rep. Cantor, who says the next $400 billion of stimulus funds should be used to pay down the debt, says the package should have included more tax cuts and other incentives for small businesses.

“I don’t think we need to be spending all this money,” he says. “[But] if there’s a commitment to pursue a Keynesian economic policy, let’s give it back to the people who earn the money in the first place…especially those entrepreneurs who’ll give us the path to job creation.”

The ship may have already sailed on the stimulus spending, but Rep. Cantor and his fellow Republicans have tapped into Americans’ anxiety over the mounting deficit to push back on President Obama’s broader agenda.

Click here for the Tech Ticker story.

But David Leonhardt at The New York Times suggests that the list should also include a less obvious nominee: public universities.

At its top levels, the American system of higher education may be the best in the world. Yet in terms of its core mission — turning teenagers into educated college graduates — much of the system is simply failing.

Only 33 percent of the freshmen who enter the University of Massachusetts, Boston, graduate within six years. Less than 41 percent graduate from the University of Montana, and 44 percent from the University of New Mexico. The economist Mark Schneider refers to colleges with such dropout rates as “failure factories,” and they are the norm.

The United States does a good job enrolling teenagers in college, but only half of students who enroll end up with a bachelor’s degree. Among rich countries, only Italy is worse. That’s a big reason inequality has soared, and productivity growth has slowed. Economic growth in this decade was on pace to be slower than in any decade since World War II — even before the financial crisis started.

Click here for The New York Times story.

Stephen Battaglia, left, of West Palm Beach, Fla., searches for jobs on a computer at Workforce Alliance in West Palm Beach in July. (Reuters photo)

Non-farm payrolls fell 216,000 for the month, fewer than the 276,000 lost in July, the Labor Department said Friday. The economy has shed 7.4 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007. The data reinforced expectations that employers will begin adding jobs by early next year, though the pace of job creation remains uncertain.

The latest figures are consistent with an economy pulling out of its deepest downturn since the Great Depression. But rising unemployment portends persistent weakness in consumer confidence, income and spending even as manufacturers start bouncing back and the stock market revives. The construction and manufacturing sectors together accounted for more than half of August’s job losses. Losses in retail and business services narrowed substantially. The biggest gains came in health care.

Stephen Stanley of RBS Securities said the report “strengthens our conviction of a relatively upbeat economic outlook,” but added that “it was not far enough away from expectations to change the views of either optimists or pessimists.”

Click here for The Wall Street Journal story.

Job seekers at a job fair in Chicago. (AFP photo)

The 298,000 drop followed a revised 360,000 decline the prior month that was smaller than previously estimated, according to figures from ADP Employer Services, Bloomberg News reports.

Today’s figures underscore the danger that consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, may be slow to gain traction in coming months. The report comes two days before a Labor Department release forecast to show the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent in August.

“Considering the severity of the recession and uncertainty over the strength and sustainability of the recovery, the labor market’s recuperation will be slow and painful,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pa., which forecast a drop of 290,000.

Meanwhile, U.S. worker productivity rose in the second quarter at the fastest pace in almost six years as companies squeezed more out of remaining staff to boost profits. Productivity, a measure of employee output per hour, rose at a 6.6 percent annual rate, the most since the third quarter of 2003, revised figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. Labor costs fell by the most in nine years.

The Labor Department’s payrolls report, due in two days, may show employers cut another 225,000 jobs in August and unemployment climbed from 9.4 percent in July, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.

Click here for the Bloomberg News story.