Tamara Chuang
Business/Technology Reporter
Quick links: Amp robotics-adjacent job | GrowHaus operations director | Convention Center sales manager | Beverage distributor closing, cuts 526 jobs| Labor strikes | Tech job forecasts | Take the poll
Are there really job openings out there?
Depends on whom you ask.
Employers who are hiring say yes. Some job seekers feel differently.
Andrew Hudson, who sees both sides as founder of Andrew Hudson’s Jobs List, put it like this: “Finding a job in Colorado is so difficult right now. Employers are hiring — but more cautiously. Companies are taking longer to make decisions, interviewing more candidates, and looking for extremely precise fits for their open roles.”
There are hints that fewer companies are hiring today than in the recent past. U.S. job openings fell 5% in February from a year earlier, according to this week’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, or JOLTS, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In that report, the federal government was hit hard, with openings falling 24.6% in a year. Industries from construction and finance to information and retail also saw job listings decline between 20% to 35%. Real estate and rental and leasing jobs dropped 62.4% nationwide.
Comparable data for Colorado is no longer available. The BLS stopped sharing monthly JOLTS for states after December, switching to an annual schedule. But the West region, which includes Colorado and a dozen other states, saw 6.1% fewer job openings in February.
Other local job data has also been sparse so far this year, partly because of October’s federal government shutdown. January data for Colorado job growth and unemployment should be out later this month. U.S. data is still coming out — the nation’s nonfarm employers added 178,000 jobs in March at a rate that was much higher than economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected. But February’s job losses were worse than initially announced, with the nation losing 133,000 jobs instead of just 92,000.
Economists like Bill Craighead, program director at the UCCS Economic Forum in Colorado Springs, must look for other sources. He gets job data from Lightcast, a private labor market research firm.
“At the state level, there are some other indicators like unemployment insurance claims and job postings on Indeed that we can look at, but for the Colorado Springs area, the only thing I’ve had this year are the job postings data I get using Lightcast,” Craighead said in an email. “Those are still pretty subdued compared with a few years ago.”
There are available jobs out there. We checked in with a few companies to get more insight into what it takes to get hired and how the process is going:
Field service solutions technician at AMP, $31-$36/hour
As trash moves through Amp’s conveyer system, the machines identify potential recyclables based on their artificial intelligence training and image recognition. Amp is based in Louisville and calls itself a recycling-automation company. (Handout)AMP, a recycling-automation company in Louisville backed by $91 million in funding, builds waste-sorting facilities that use automation, AI and robots. It opened a new processing plant this week in Portsmouth, Virgina, with partner Southeastern Public Service Authority.
And they’re hiring! One of the jobs, a field service solutions tech, can work remotely but the company prefers someone located near its Colorado headquarters.
“You don’t have to have a college degree,” AMP recruiter Jodi Parsell said. “That’s because we’re not asking them to build the robots or design them. Part of a robotic system, and especially in our case, is electrical, pneumatics, mechanical. And if you have some of that competency, that’s what we’re looking for.”
It’s a troubleshooting role to support customers. Experience in the utility industry, at power plants and some electrical experience or other skilled trade, like being a millwright, would make the candidate stand out, Parsell added.
There’s been several dozen applicants since the job was posted nearly three weeks ago. That’s low compared with its software engineer openings. Those are more challenging because of the influx of laid-off engineers by big tech companies and the ability to apply willy-nilly on sites like Indeed and LinkedIn. “I’m still getting thousands and thousands of applicants. A good majority of them are not qualified,” she said.
The field service job may be less popular because of the experience needed, plus it requires travel of “up to 75%,” to visit with customers in other states. However, she added, “I’m getting qualified people for this particular role.”
> Check out AMP’s job
GrowHaus business operations director, $88,000-$103,000
During the 2025 federal government shutdown, The GrowHaus activated a Temporary Emergency Food Assistance program to support Denver neighbors impacted by SNAP benefit freezes and federal furloughs. Its community-led team welcomed 1,000 neighbors and distributed 10,000 pounds of fresh produce, proteins, spices, and pantry staples, in addition to their existing food access programming. (Provided by The GrowHaus)After structural issues forced The GrowHaus to close its greenhouse in the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood in 2020, the Denver nonprofit reimagined its future.
It’s grown into an organization that focuses on feeding its community fresh food and providing wellness programs, like Zumba classes. It serves 7,000 people a month. New grant funding and business contracts are also allowing it to invest in its business side with a number of new hires.
One in particular, a business operations director, has executive director Giselle Díaz Campagna hopeful they’ll attract an experienced director yearning for impact.
“I think some people could be on the fence, like ‘I’ve never done nonprofit work.’ I feel like being able to attract a professional at the level of a director to join a small organization, what a win that would be for us,” Campagna said. “Our scale is real. Our impact is real. We’re talking thousands of people, hundreds and hundreds of households every single week that benefit from this work.”
The GrowHaus is looking for someone with financial experience, budget tracking, facilities management and all sorts of operational know-how and speak English and Spanish. Someone to help the organization scale and, well, grow. Plus, the new hire will have tons of support from a staff that numbers about 15, she said.
“The world just seems kind of upside down. And I think one of the things we can do with our careers is make it make sense,” Campagna said. “I feel that when we are grounded in work that is significant to others — in that if you don’t show up that day, it matters — you’re impacting the lives of people in real time.”
All of The GrowHaus full-time jobs provide full medical coverage, a retirement plan and paid time off.
> GrowHaus business operations director
Colorado Convention Center sales manager, $59,400-$63,000
The Colorado Convention Center photographed on Nov. 13, 2023. (Tamara Chuang, The Colorado Sun)If you’re a people-person who has a knack for building relationships, this sales manager job at the Colorado Convention Center really needs you.
It’s actually a role that has been a challenge to hire for, said Rich Carollo, director of sales and services. So much so that the convention center added a $1,000 signing bonus — $500 after 30 days and $500 more after 90 days. The job was posted about 10 days ago.
“It’s not getting the amount of responses that we’ve had for other listings and there is only a handful of qualified applicants in the batch that did apply,” Carollo said. “Given previous listings, we had been hoping for more than what was received.”
This role has health benefits, a 4% employer match on a 401(k) retirement plan and a RTD Eco Pass to get around the city. It’s based in downtown Denver, which has challenges getting back to prepandemic office occupancies, but for the tourism industry, the number of meetings and conventions hit records last year.
Carollo isn’t sure why fewer qualified candidates are applying but it could be that the specifics of the job and the need for industry experience.
But for those who might be interested, his advice is apply: “You get zero % of the jobs you don’t apply for ?,” he said in an email.
> Sales manager job
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The White River National Forest in March 2023 approved a 2.4-mile road across federal land to access the proposed 19-home community of Berlaimont Estates, seen here in the aspens at the top of the photo above the town of Edwards in the Eagle River Valley in October 2022. (Jason Blevins, The Colorado Sun / EcoFlight)> Read story
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Other working bits
➔ Beverage distributor shutting down, laying off 526 employees. Eagle Rock Distributing Company, which has operations all over the state, will shut down all Colorado operations on June 5 and lay off 526 employees, according to a filing with the state’s Department of Labor and Employment on Friday.
The company has operations in Monument, Grand Junction, Loveland, Pueblo, Commerce City and Durango. Eagle Rock agreed to be acquired by Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits in March and at the time, Southern Glazer CEO Wayne E. Chaplin said in a statement that the acquisition will “significantly expand its total beverage distribution in Colorado.” Eagle Rock distributed Anheuser-Busch products, including Budweiser, Beat Box Beverages and Phorm Energy.
Based in Miami and Dallas, Southern Glazer also planned to continue Eagle Rock’s operations in Colorado so it’s unclear what happened since March. It could be due to the change in ownership and Southern Glazer will staff up accordingly. The Colorado Sun has reached out to Southern Glazer for comment, as well as Teamsters Local 455, which represents Eagle Rock’s unionized employees. In late February, Southern Glazer announced job cuts impacting “just over 1% of its employees,” according to a company press release.
Littleton’s Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on June 19, 2024. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)➔ Colorado has at least three labor strikes currently. Nearly four weeks after workers at the Swift Beef Company plant in Greeley walked off the job to fight for better wages, there’s still no resolution between United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 and JBS, one of the largest meat processors in the world. UFCW, which represents 3,800 workers at the meatpacking plant, is sharing updates on its Facebook page. Monday will be the start of week four.
This week, two more groups of union workers went on strike.
On Wednesday, educators at Sheridan School District south of Denver went on strike at five schools because the board and union have been negotiating for five months and still have no new contract. The district closed school for the rest of the week. >> Read story Employees at the Alamo Drafthouse in Sloans Lake walked out Friday to protest the company’s switch to mobile ordering, which means movie watchers need to use their phones to order food or drinks. It’s been a point of contention for more than a year, according to Communication Workers of America, Local 777 in Denver. The union says the implementation “was made to eliminate workers and raise company profits,” according to a Local 777 statement online. The movie theater chain, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, stopped taking movie reservations online Friday. It was only doing walk-ins, according to an employee at the Sloans Lake location.➔ Tech job growth flat in 2025, but projected to grow in 2026. U.S. tech jobs dropped 0.3% last year to 9,597,888, according to CompTIA’s annual State of the Tech Workforce 2026 report. Job numbers in the sector have been flat for the past three years. But as emerging technologies, like AI, spread to nontech companies, tech employment is expected to grow 1.9% this year.
Colorado’s stats aligned with U.S. trends. The state lost about 3,200 tech jobs last year, down 0.6% and ending the year with 254,937 jobs. Employment is expected to grow in 2026, adding 4,386 jobs or a 2.8% growth. Colorado also ranked fourth nationwide for the highest concentration of tech workers based on overall employment, at 8.2%. The leader, Washington, had a 9.3% concentration of tech workers.
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Thanks for sticking with me for this week’s report. ~ tamara
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Colorado’s largest hemp grower fears big staff layoffs under new federal rules Denver leads US for apartment concessions as landlords aim to fill oversupply Imposter-scam complaints decline in Colorado, but consumer complaints hit record How an Estes Park workforce housing program is rewarding renters Denver prices grew faster than US in January How Denver’s Art Gym went from private passion project to artist co-op This 73-year-old Puebloan fixes planes for clients like a Saudi prince. Become an airplane mechanic and write your own ticket too. So many new Colorado businesses filed to start up in 2025, but renewals declinedWhat’s Working is a Colorado Sun column about surviving in today’s economy. Email tamara@coloradosun.com with stories, tips or questions. Read the archive, ask a question at cosun.co/heyww and don’t miss the next one by signing up at coloradosun.com/getww.
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