Colorado gained 3,000 payroll jobs in June from the previous month, and the state’s unemployment rate dropped three-tenths of a point, to 5.5 percent, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment reported Friday. But the Colorado job gain was driven by increased government hiring, with public sector payroll jobs increasing by a net 3,300 last month and private sector positions declining by 300, CDLE, monthly report said.  Read more

After seventy years of state ownership, the Mexican government has amended its constitution to open the energy sector to private investment. This amendment also allows for foreign participation, which would include firms from Denver. It should come as no surprise, then, the Biennial of the Americas chose the Executive Director of the Global Energy Management program, Jim Marchiori, as one of 80 delegates from Denver to attend an energy symposium in Mexico City.  Read more

After 2 weeks of exploring and learning, the University of Colorado Denver Business School students are back from Europe. From May 19 to June 2, students majoring in Health Administration, Marketing, and other fields toured state-of-the-art facilities in Berlin and Basel to learn directly about business and public policies that put Germany and Switzerland at the forefront of economic progress.  Read more

The six finalists were not the only ones to win something in the 2014 Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition. In addition to the $21,500 prize money awarded to the six finalists, three entrepreneurs were awarded $1,000 each for excelling in three different categories. The Posner Social Entrepreneurship Award The Posner Social Entrepreneurship Award was created for business plans that accepted and embraced the uphill battle of social entrepreneurship.  Read more

What is the best way to recruit independent financial advisors to a network of firms? This was the question students contemplated for the three-week Maymester course Special Topics in Management: Strategy Consulting. The course offered students deep insight and input into a major national financial services firm, Jackson National Life Insurance. From May 19 to June 5, the graduate students worked with Jackson representative Phil Wright for direct experiential learning.  Read more

NerdWallet crunches numbers to show that good pay, good opportunities make city best place for women to work. AURORA | Aurora is the best large city for women to work in the U.S., according to a recent study by the financial website NerdWallet. Analysts at NerdWallet said that’s because of a 5 percent population growth since 2009, lower-than-average rents and women in Aurora earning 95 percent of what men earn for similar work.  Read more

“I had no idea.” Kirill Buzinov, a recent University of Colorado Denver Business School Financial Management undergraduate, received a Business School Student Club Leaders Scholarship without ever applying for it. It was not gifted to him because he looks nice in a suit, but because he demonstrated strong leadership skills in a student organization, specifically CU Denver Finance and Risk Management and Insurance (RMI) Club.  Read more