Denver Area Ranks Fourth for Growth

Denver is expected to eke out total employment growth of 0.8% this year. That compares to overall growth for the top 20 markets of 0.1%

Phoenix-Mesa, AZ, is leading the pack with 1.6% growth, followed by San Diego at 1% and Chicago, as with Denver, at 0.8%. At the bottom, is San Francisco at a negative 1.3%. Other cities expected to lose employment: Detroit at 1.2%, Philadelphia at 0.7%, Boston at 0.6%, Minneapolis at 0.5%, and New York City at 0.4%.

Cities that are completely flat with zero growth include Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle. In Denver, manufacturing is taking the biggest hit with a loss of 4.3% of the jobs. Only Seattle and Nassau-Suffolk, NY, with a 5.3% manufacturing job loss and a 4.5%, manufacturing job loss, respectively, were down more.

Denver's biggest gains are in government at 5.9%. No other metropolitan area even comes close to that. Dallas was No. 2 for government growth at 4.2%.

However, some questioned whether government jobs in Denver could possibly be growing that much. Indeed, one top commercial real estate executive tells GlobeSt.com that it is not good news for the local economy, if true. "Government growth at a time when you're seeing declining tax revenues that will result in a cut in services? Not good."

Service sector employment in Denver is expected to grow by 1.8% this year, trade is expected to drop by 0.5% as is TCU (transportation, communications and utilities), finance is to rise by 1.8% and construction/mining is to drop by 0.8%.