Job Market/Major Industries (Denver, Aurora: insurance, purchasing, university)

[CarmenSanDiego]

I've been doing a lot of research on Denver in preparation for an anticipated 07-08 relocation. I haven't been able to find anything definite regarding the major industries in Denver as well as the current status of Denver's job market.

Who would you say are the top employers? Would a new transplant have a difficult time finding say, an administrative assistant job? Are salaries/wages fair, good, excellent?

I currently live in Chicago, work as an administrative assistant for a medical college, and make between $35-40,000/year. How feasible is it that I may have comparable employment/pay in Denver (acknowledging of course the difference in cost of living)?

Thanks!

[LoveBoating]

I know one thing, Denver metro are is fairly big on Healthcare jobs.
My wife took a $12,000 per yr. cut in pay when we moved here from So. California (Costa Mesa). She is an Accountant with a TV satellite company. She has been with the company for 4 1/2 years now, so she is doing better in pay than when we first moved here in June 2002.
As for myself, I'm actually making a better salary (hourly) than I ever have before (in my life). I work in Materials/Purchasing for a healthcare company in Denver. I've been here for 3 yr. 9 months now.
My wife got a job one month after we got here, it took me nine months. The reason it took me longer......in So. Calif. I worked with computer/electronics companies; very few companies like that here.
But, with our combines salaries, we do fine.
Good Luck.

[BusySocialWorker]

A bit old but...

Denver's Largest Employers
Here is a list of Colorado's largest employers.

Source Denver Business Journal

November 2002


# Company name Colorado Employees Headquarters Description
1. King Soopers 15,928 Kroger, Cincinnati Retail food store
2. Qwest Communications 14,400 Denver, CO Telecommunication-broadband data
3. Centura Health 12,377 Englewood Health care systems
4. Safeway 12,000 Pleasanton, CA retail-grocery
5. HealthOne 9285 Denver Health care services
6. United Airlines 7700 Chicago, Il Airlines
7. Wells Fargo Bank West N.A. 6000 San Francisco Financial Services
8. WorldCom 6000 Clinton, MA Telecommunications
9. Coors Brewing Co. 5500 Golden, CO Brewers
10. Exempla Healthcare 5420 Denver, CO Health care services
11. EchoStar Communications 4500 Littleton, CO Telecommunications-cable TB, Satellite systems
12. Kaiser Permanente 4141 Oakland, CA Health care services
13. Xcel Energy 3712 Minneapolis, MI Electric utilities
14. Ball Corp 3200 Broomfield, IN Electric utilities
15. Great West Life and Annuity Insurance Co. 3035 Manitoba, Canada Multi-line insurance
16. University of Colorado Hospital 2985 Denver, Colorado Health care services
17. Avaya 2905 Basking Ridge, N.J Telecommunications communications processing
18. CH2M Hill Companies Ltd. 2725 Englewood, CO Engineering and architectural services
19. The Children's Hospital 2042 Denver, Colorado Health services
20, Storage Technology Corp 2300 Louisville, Colorado Computer hardware
21. University of Denver 2016 Denver, Colorado University
22. Alpine Access 2000 Golden, CO Business services - call center
23. First Bank Holding Co. of Colorado 1940 Lakewood, CO Banking
24. U.S. Bank 1900 Minneapolis, MN Banking
25. Level 3 1850 Broomfield, CO. Telecommunication - wholesale serices

[tfox]

Originally Posted by CarmenSanDiego

I've been doing a lot of research on Denver in preparation for an anticipated 07-08 relocation. I haven't been able to find anything definite regarding the major industries in Denver as well as the current status of Denver's job market.

You already got the list, but it's general knowledge that Denver is big on telecommunications, media, IT/High Tech, and energy.

My impression of the job market is that it's moving fairly briskly in the high tech area. (Since I work in High Tech) The telcom market was in the dumps from about 2001-2004 but has rebounded nicely. Energy is picking up as well after a long slump, but I don't know as much about that market.

I'm not sure about how the salary compares to other areas, especially since I don't know you job function as well. We're certainly going to earn less than our counterparts in the SF Bay area, that is clear, but I don't know about Chicago.

[BusySocialWorker]

you can also go to www.salary.com and look up your current position and location (sometimes this is off by quite a bit but this will give you a baseline) and then look up the same job or job function in Denver as a compairison.

[Rootsy]

Check out http://www.milehigh.com/newsdata/data/economic for links to some good local economic and employer information. I have really good report that was done for the city/metro area last year that I'll look for once I get my other laptop running. Can't remember who sponsored the report but it has a good listing of top employers by industry along with some forecasting and assessment data.

[Mike from back east]

See: http://www.uchsc.edu/

They're taking over some of the former Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in the Aurora area, and have a university hospital.

Denver metro area is 2.5 million people +/-. Been $3B in hospital & medical field expansion here in past five years. You'll find a job.

s/Mike from back east

You're gonna love Colorado

[CarmenSanDiego]

Thanks for all the links! I'll check them out!

[CarmenSanDiego]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

See: http://www.uchsc.edu/

They're taking over some of the former Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in the Aurora area, and have a university hospital.

Denver metro area is 2.5 million people +/-. Been $3B in hospital & medical field expansion here in past five years. You'll find a job.

s/Mike from back east

You're gonna love Colorado

This is right up my alley! Thanks!