An increase in available jobs in Colorado appears to be continuing. Intuit Inc. and The Conference Board both have recently indicated an improvement in the Colorado job market. Of course it’s no surprise that the Denver office leasing activity is directly related to employment. While the Denver office leasing is gradually improving, there is usually a 12-18 month lag between when the labor market turns around and when you start to see improvements in fundamentals such as vacancies and absorption.

Intuit Inc. reported employment by small businesses in Colorado has increased by 0.5% in February which report was predicated upon a survey of business users of Intuit software.  Intuit also reported increases of 0.5% in January, 0.4% in December and 0.5% in November.  Intuit, which is a California, based financial software and online services company, surveyed data anonymously from 7300 small businesses nationwide which had fewer than 20 employees.

The Conference Board reported a supply/demand ratio based on the number of unemployed people for every job advertised online reflecting a lower number indicating an overall better employment availability.  Colorado’s supply/demand ratio was 2.52 which were better than the national ratio of 2.91.  Colorado’s job openings which were advertised online rose by 3,600 in February from the preceding three months.  The Conference Board also reported a gain of 2,100 jobs in January.   Of the Colorado online jobs, which were advertised in February, 62,200 were new ads which were an increase of 4,700 from the previous month.  Colorado has shown an upward trend in online jobs since August 2011.

Intuit also reported that the average employment compensation was $32,200 per year, an increase of 1.5% from January.  Average compensation in December was $32,472.

Economist Susan Woodard indicated in the Intuit report that “As an overall trend, employment is up modestly.”