Feds cut 2,000 jobs here. (Denver, Colorado; downsizing of federal agencies)

Denver's federal workers swatted

Metro Denver quietly lost nearly 10 percent of its federal work force in the past year and likely will lose several hundred more federal jobs in the next four years.

The reductions stem from the effort to "reinvent" federal government by reducing the number of employees nationwide and by reorganizing government agencies.

The Denver Business Journal recently completed a three-month analysis of all 112 federal agencies, bureaus and departments represented in the metro area to determine how the reinvention initiative is affecting local federal employees.

About 2,000 federal jobs - not including military or postal positions - have been abolished in the Denver area in the past year. That's out of a total population of about 21,000.

The cuts have bitten into employment at the Denver Federal Center, one of the largest non-military federal installations in the country. Still, other downsizings have affected downtown and "field" jobs, such as those with the Soil Conservation Survey.

More than meets the eye

Combine the 2,000-position shrinkage with another 6,700 military and civilian jobs abolished by the Lowry Air Force Base closing and the 1,300 workers who have left jobs at Rocky Flats, and it's easy to see how Uncle Sam's employment diet has impacted metro Denver.

The possible closing of Fitzsimons Army Medical Center would mean the loss of another 3,000 military and civilian workers, taking the total employment loss to a staggering 13,000.

In 1992, the last time the Office of Personnel Management tallied its federal payroll in the Denver area, the number of U.S. government employees - including military and postal workers - amounted to 36,667.

The Business Journal study focused on nonmilitary and nonpostal employment, the areas most affected by the reinvention initiative. Cuts range from five employees at the U.S. General Accounting Office to approximately 400 at the Bureau of Reclamation - the hardest-hit Denver agency. It doesn't appear that the cutbacks will diminish locally. Either through buyouts or layoffs, the federal government is …