State employers say wages to rise 3.6 percent in

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percent statewide in 2009, according to a survey of 619 employeras bythe . The report, releaser Sept. 19, was the organization’s 30th annual surveyu of employers onwhat they’re planninhg for wage increases or decreases. The projectedx increases are 0.1 percent lower than the 2008 wage forecasyof 3.7 percent. “Even with an economy that is challenginv — both nationally and statewide — our survey indicates that Colorado employers are continuing to projecyt wage increases in 2009 that are above the Denver inflation rate,” said Michael Severns, president of the Mountainh States Employers Council, in a statement.
For the sixth year in a row, Colorado’z oil and gas employers are projecting the largest salary raises among the 13 market sectorws in thesurvey — reflectingh the rapid rise of the state’s energuy sector. Oil and gas companies said they planne to raise wages an averageof 5.1 percent in which while above the state is below the 6.7 percent increasr they projected for 2008. Thosw companies are scrambling for workers because so many left the industrty when it spent years at a low ebb in the 1980sand 1990s. “It’s still a growingh industry,” said Bob Morrison, head of recruitment and planningf forthe U.S.
division of Canadian oil and gascompanyg (NYSE: ECA), which has its U.S. headquarters in “There’s a very largre demand for folks with oil andgas experience,” he “The salary increases are indicative of the demand for talentf both within Colorado and nationally. Not only are we competintg within Colorado, we’re competing in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.” At the start of the EnCana expected to hire about 380 peopld in theUnited States, Morrisonj said. But with the U.S. division growing so EnCana’s already hired 350, and expects the year-endd total to be around 450 or 500, Morrisobn said.
Of the 350 hired so far, 225 are eithe r Denver-based or Colorado-based, EnCana spokesman Doug Hock “We have a stronger need for talent,” Morrisojn said. “It’s across the but it’s particularly technicak people, engineers, geoscientists, geologists, land negotiators as well as ourfielxd people, lease operators and Everyone plays a vital After the oil and gas sector, minin g companies reported that they expect to give the next-largest salary increases for 2009, at 4.5 But the survey also reflected the nation’s troubled economy.
Five percent of employers surveyedr saidthey didn’t expect to raisre wages at all in 2009, an increase from 4 percenrt last year. The constructio industry ranked last for 2009 reflecting ongoing problems in the housing Construction employers said they expected to raisrwages 2.7 percent in 2009, down from 3.1 percent projected for 2008, according to the