Boulder has hot commodity despite recession: jobs

Boulder is not only a popular place to live, but also to make a living.

Money magazine recently named Boulder County as No. 8 on its Top 10 Places for Jobs list. The list was accumulated based on the magazine’s list of the Top Places to Live 2009, of which Louisville ranked first among small towns.

“While many people come for the University of Colorado, graduates stay because of the plentiful job opportunities,” the magazine said of Boulder.

The magazine noted Boulder’s high-tech firms – and top employers – including IBM, Sun Microsystems and Ball Aerospace, as well as IBM’s recent announcement that it would add another 500 jobs (primarily at its call center in the Boulder facility).

Cass County, N.D., with a 3.4 percent unemployment rate, topped Money magazine’s rankings. The magazine wrote that the county is the hub for the surrounding area’s health care, retail, manufacturing and educational needs. And now Microsoft and other high-tech companies are moving in next to the county’s traditional large employers of farm and construction equipment manufacturers such as John Deere and Bobcat.

Here’s a look at Money magazine's Top 10 Places for Jobs, all of which boast unemployment rates well below the national average of 10 percent: