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Bringing the jobs home to Colorado – Study finds local input key to state’s revival

Economic development officials in Colorado, under fire in recent years for not taking the offensive, rolled out a new battle map on Tuesday in the fight to lure jobs to the state.

By Aldo Svaldi
Denver Post Business Writer

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~33~1874894,00.html

A new 600-page study, produced over eight months by more than 150 researchers across Colorado, drilled deep for information in the state’s 64 counties. It lists strengths and weaknesses, what jobs are available, and what industries offer the greatest potential.

Among the findings:

Biosciences, nanotechnology and health care services are huge economic opportunities.

Two-thirds of Colorado counties rely heavily on mature industries such as agriculture and mining.

Colorado could maintain its dominance as a telecommunications hub as that industry recovers.

The upshot of the report is that economic development efforts should flow from the local level up, rather than being forced from the state level down.

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"We believe strongly that local leadership is the key," said Richard Wobbekind, an economist at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

CU’s Business Research Division, headed by Wobbekind, compiled the data for the report, which was commissioned last year by the Economic Developers’ Council of Colorado and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

More than 30 economic development groups participated in the study, which is intended to help Colorado regain its economic footing after a three-year downturn.

"We have a tool. The real question is, can we turn it into something that can be measured in terms of jobs and the economy," said Rocky Scott, president of The Greater Colorado Springs Economic Development Corp.

Agriculture, natural resources and tourism remain vital to the state, along with telecommunications, technology, manufacturing, transportation, defense and services, according to the report.

But geography shapes, to a large degree, what opportunities those industries provide.

"You do get that differential between the technology-based and the agriculturally-based," Wobbekind said.

Boulder County is recognized as a hub for both software development and photonics, the technology of generating and directing light. Colorado ranks fifth in both areas nationally for employment in those fields.

The technology slump has hurt both areas, especially photonics, necessitating a focus on new areas.

"It was crushed," Longmont Area Economic Council president John Cody said of the photonics industry.

The study shows Colorado lags the nation in health care services, an area considered a key source of future job growth as the population ages.

"Medical services are substantially below what they are in a lot of other areas," Cody said.

Colorado is trying to change that with the redevelopment of the former Fitzsimons military campus in Aurora.

If successful, the new Fitzsimons will replace 4,000 military jobs with more than 32,000 jobs on the campus and 34,000 in surrounding areas, said Bill Decker, Adams County’s economic development chief.

Adams County, where Fitzsimons is located, is also known as a transportation hub, with Denver International Airport, cargo facilities and trucking companies.

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