DENVER: THE BUSINESS CLIMATE

Metro Denver includes a total of nine counties with businesses spread throughout the region. The top business districts include Central, Denver Technological Center, Interlocken and Inverness. The area’s Economic Development Corporation (Metro Denver EDC) monitors eight industry clusters throughout the metropolitan region. The clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies AEROSPACE – Colorado again achieved its standing in 2012 as the second-largest space economy in the US, behind California. The nine-county region employs 19,600 workers, metropolitan areas in total private aerospace employment concentration. In 2012, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed a bill to limit the liability activities in the state. The legislation AVIATION – Denver International Airport is a major economic engine for the region’s aviation industry, which employs 15,910 workers. Positive job expansion, with year-over-year growth of 6.4 percent, and three new nonstop 2012 create further momentum in this industry. BIOSCIENCE – More than 14,980 employees work at 600 bioscience companies in the nine-county region. Of particular note, the employment concentration in the medical devices and diagnostics subcluster ranks ninth in the country. The industry draws on the region’s research universities, as well as opportunities to bring together academic, research and bioscience companies at the 578-acre Fitzsimons Life Science District and the adjacent Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. BROADCASTING & TELECOMMUNICATIONS – With 39,620 broadcasting and telecommunications workers, the nine-county region has the sixthhighest employment concentration out of the 50 largest metropolitan areas. The region is the largest in the United States to offer one-bounce satellite uplinks, due to its unique geographic location in the Mountain time zone. ENERGY – The interrelationship between fossil fuels and cleantech provides unique growth opportunities for this industry that employs 44,910 people at 2,970 companies in the region. The area ranks fourth for fossil fuels and seventh in cleantech employment concentration among the 50 largest metros. The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden is a prime asset. Colorado is estimated to have produced a record 40 million barrels of oil in 2012 – much of it from new wells, particularly in Colorado’s Niobrara formation. FINANCIAL SERVICES – The ninecounty region is one of the few areas outside of the Northeast with a key market segments: banking and services base of 13,020 companies and 87,740 employees. Five-year employment growth in the investments subcluster was 4.4 percent. HEALTHCARE & WELLNESS – With nearly 176,460 healthcare and wellness workers at 18,260 companies across the region, the healthcare and wellness cluster is one of the region’s fastest growing industry clusters and is a major contributor to the region’s economic productivity. Employment growth in the industry between 2007 and 2012 was 22.1 percent. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & SOFTWARE – year, Colorado ranked third in the nation for high-tech workers per capita, according to TechAmerica Foundation’s Cyberstates 2011 report. A strong entrepreneurial spirit fuels this industry, employing 43,230 workers at 4,170 companies throughout the nine-county region.