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CU Boulder study: Economy is making steady improvement
Dec 5th
IN 2012, SAYS CU LEEDS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Colorado will continue on the road to recovery and add jobs in 2012 following a positive year in 2011, according to economist Richard Wobbekind of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business.
Wobbekind’s announcement was part of the 47th annual Colorado Business Economic Outlook Forum presented Dec. 5 by CU-Boulder’s Leeds School of Business.
Compiled by the Leeds School’s Business Research Division, the comprehensive outlook for 2012 features forecasts and trends for 13 business sectors prepared by approximately 100 key business, government and industry professionals.
“In 2012 we’re predicting slow but steady growth for Colorado, much like the U.S. economy,” said Wobbekind, executive director of the Business Research Division. “We’ll continue to add jobs in a wide array of sectors, but not at the dramatic rate that is necessary to significantly lower the unemployment rate.”
Overall, the forecast calls for a gain of 23,000 jobs in 2012, compared with a gain of 27,500 jobs this year. Most sectors of the Colorado economy are predicted to grow in 2012, including the addition of 2,900 jobs in construction, marking the first positive job growth in that troubled sector in four years.
When comparing the Leeds’ forecast to forecasts for other states, Colorado is expected to be in the top 10 states for job growth in 2012.
“The broader story here is Colorado entered the recession later, came out of the recession later and now appears to be accelerating past the rest of the country in terms of job growth and recovery,” Wobbekind said.
Even with positive job growth predicted for the state, Wobbekind said uncertainty at numerous levels still clouds the economic picture in the state and nation.
“The theme of almost every national forecast is uncertainty,” he said. “Every day there is a new event in Europe or a new event in Washington. So you continue to have all of these elements of uncertainty and they impact consumer confidence and household spending. That is something that is very hard to forecast or predict.”
The strongest sector for projected job growth in Colorado in 2012 is the educational and health services sector. The sector is expected to add 7,500 jobs in 2012.
In addition, other leading growth sectors for 2012 include the professional and business services sector with 6,800 jobs added and leisure and hospitality with 3,800 added..
On the agriculture side, Colorado farmers and ranchers are coming off what is expected to be a record-setting year for net farm income. Colorado’s agricultural producers benefited from unexpectedly strong market prices for livestock and crops in 2011, leading to an estimated record net farm income in the state of $1.7 billion. Historic drought in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas spared much of Colorado in 2011, leading to increased market prices for Colorado agricultural products.
“Mother Nature played a major part in this, and this year it played in our favor,” Wobbekind said, adding that Colorado agriculturalists also are expected to do well in 2012.
The manufacturing sector, after adding jobs in 2011 for the first time since 2003, will return to a long-term downward trend and is forecast to lose 1,900 jobs. Two other sectors expected to lose jobs are information, forecast to shed 500 jobs, and financial activities, losing 1,000 jobs.
In 2011, Colorado consumers spent more on goods and services, with retail sales increasing 6.5 percent for the year. In 2012, retail sales are forecast to remain relatively strong with a gain of 4 percent.
“We view the consumer as coming back to the table,” Wobbekind said. “Consumers have deferred a lot, including what we would call more necessary expenditures such as automobiles and other essential products that have been wearing out and need to be replaced.”
With 2011 coming to a close, Wobbekind said Colorado’s economy is ending the year on a positive note.
“We went into the year a little bit slow and then built up momentum for pretty much the entire year, and the last couple of months we’ve passed the national growth rate for jobs, and we’ll end the year above the national growth rate for jobs,” he said. “2011 was a decent year in which we added jobs in a fairly wide variety of sectors.”
Colorado’s unemployment rate for 2012 is expected to decrease from 8.7 percent at the end of 2011 to 8.4 percent, compared with a projected national unemployment rate of around 9 percent.
Colorado’s population is projected to grow 1.5 percent, or 75,900 people, in 2012.
To view the entire economic outlook for Colorado in 2012, including an overview of each of the state’s major economic sectors, visit http://leeds.colorado.edu/BRD and click on the Colorado Business Economic Outlook 2012 icon
See what it’s like to be poor in Boulder County
Dec 2nd
Boulder County, Colo. – The Boulder County Circles Campaign will host a poverty simulation on Dec. 15 in Longmont to allow residents, members of the business community and representatives of local nonprofit agencies to understand the realities of poverty.
What: Poverty Simulation
When: Thursday, Dec. 15, 6-8 p.m.
Where: Longmont YMCA, 950 Lashley St.
During the simulation, participants role-play the lives of low-income families. Some are Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients, some are disabled, and some are senior citizens on Social Security. They have the stressful task of providing for basic necessities and shelter on a limited budget during the course of four 15-minute “weeks.” They interact with human service agencies, grocers, pawnbrokers, bill collectors, job interviewers, police officers and others..
The simulation enables participants to look at poverty from a variety of angles and then to recognize and discuss the potential for change within their local communities. The simulation was designed to sensitize those who frequently work with low-income families, as well as to create a broader awareness of the realities of poverty among policymakers, community leaders and others.
Please contact Kara Edin at 303-441-3977 or kedin@bouldercounty.org or Eliberto Mendoza at 303-441-1503 or emendoza@bouldercounty.org for additional information and to register.
The Circles Campaign is part of Boulder County’s continued effort to help move individuals and families out of poverty and into a life of sustained self-sufficiency. The campaign provides a stable structure for people working their way out of poverty to receive guidance and support from mentors to help them develop skills and access resources needed to move toward economic stability
We are the media like it or not Jann Scott’s Journal #boulder
Nov 5th
Jann Scott the talk show host doesn’t exist a lone either. I have always appeared on a radio station with support staff or a satellite network with even more support. In TV I have worked at stations or cable channels either live or on tape never alone always with a team.
Today I host 22Boom on cable channel 22 here in Boulder. It takes approximately 6 people to produce each episode plus an editor or two, and the staff at channel 22 to get it on the air. Even a Jann Scott Live segment inside of 22Boom takes at least 4 people to produce. After all of that is done the show simultaneously appears on Boulder Channel 1 and all the Channel One Networks. Then it is touted on You tube, twitter and Face book.
Boulder Channel One and all the Channel One Networks are an even bigger under taking with contributions by hundreds of people, hundreds of channels, 1000s of viewers and fans and unfans.
Fans are the topic of todays Journal. With the advent of Social Media the waters have murkied a bit and it is up to me up to us to not get murked in the muck as Dan Culberson likes to say. Social Media and the Internet have produced a lot of so called citizen journalists of which I am not one. I am not saying I am better I am just saying I am not them. Neither are we. Our (my) fans are often social media types who are not me either. I (we) use social media as a conveyor belt into the general populous. And though the perception may be that we are Tweeps, we are not. We are separate from. There is a whole other world that could care less about Twitter or the internet. They watch TV, read the paper and don’t give a crap about sm.
We are media. I am media with a traditional outlook and management. It’s just that we are “new media” , but media just the same. So I may seem like a person to you or Boulder Channel 1 may appear to be some guy just like every twitter gal or guy blogger is someone representing only themselves…we aren’t that.
I mean, if fans want to perceive me that way it’s Okay. I guess. It is our unfans, the jealous ones who like to complain. But I try to not pay attention. But it is hard not to because they are fans or unfans. I know we have done our job when even they don’t know or they think we are down to their level: sniveling children.
I once had some unfans go on a tear about how we were not real which was interesting to watch on the internet. Recently when Steve Jobs died an executive at at a PR firm wrote to me screaming because he didn’t like our tribute. He went so far as to threaten to ruin me. That was a bit out of character for a pr firm who usually try to sell me something. We determined that the PR exec must have been drunk the night he wrote to us because his personal profile says he starts and ends his day with beer.Cause to threaten to ruin a talk show host or TV network is just as flattering as a praise.
This is a trap I occasionally fall into …deep. The trap is to write in forums and not on TV. Jo Anne Ostrowe the Denver Post TV writer once asked me during an interview.. “what’s this we thing Jann?” I avoided her stupid question as she continued to write about us.
We always have to remind young people when they come to work here what the rules are. 1st rule is that this isn’t social media and you are not a fan here. The rules here are you are now working for a media organization and we demand 100% loyalty. Which means no working for any other media outlet, no personal blogs, video outside of the network. We want you to build your creativity here, but you don’t get to moonlight or think you run the place, we do. That doesn’t always set well with the new sm types, but fortunately , there are plenty of network trad kids out there who love it. Just thought I’d clear that up
from the oo koo ka choo Capitol of America
Jann Scott
Boulder Colorado