COLORADO SPRINGS, FORT COLLINS LEAD STATE IN GROWTH

Two Colorado metros ranked among the top 10 nationally for job growth last year. And sorry, Denver, Boulder and Greeley, you didn’t qualify.

Colorado Springs had a 5.5 percent gain in nonfarm jobs between December 2017 and December 2018, which ranked fourth among 388 metros, according to a survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Not far behind was Fort Collins, in the ninth spot, with a growth rate of 4.4 percent. Fort Collins last month made a repeat showing at the top of a list of the nation’s most dynamic economies.

The three metros ahead of Colorado Springs — Ocean City, N.J.; Midland, Texas; and Kokomo, Ind. — all have smaller populations.

The number of nonfarm jobs in Colorado Springs rose from 290,300 to 306,400 across last year, while in Fort Collins the number rose from 167,000 to 174,300.

The next closest Colorado metro at 47th was Boulder with a 3 percent gain in nonfarm employment, followed by Greeley, which until the oil downturn in late 2014 was a regular in the top five. It ranked 79th last year with a 2.6 percent rate of growth.

Metro Denver came in at 119th with a 2.1 percent rate. Grand Junction, long a laggard, showed more pep. It ran in the middle of the pack with a 1.9 percent gain in jobs, ranking 154th.

Pueblo, in theory, should ride the draft of a strong Colorado Springs economy, but that isn’t showing up in the numbers yet. Pueblo added a meager 300 jobs, for a 0.5 percent growth rate that ranked 322nd.