Where do these numbers come from?
The job and pay numbers are the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), 2025 annual averages for Mesa County, released this year. It counts jobs covered by unemployment insurance, so it misses most self employed people and sole proprietors. The business size chart uses the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns for 2023, the latest year out.
These are county numbers, so they include Fruita, Palisade, Clifton and the rest of the valley, not just Grand Junction. And 2020 was a pandemic year, so "since 2020" starts from a low point for some industries, especially restaurants.
Chart 1: Which industries employ the most people here?
| Industry (private, 2025) | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance | 12,565 |
| Retail | 8,690 |
| Restaurants, bars and lodging | 7,070 |
| Construction | 5,025 |
| Transportation and warehousing | 2,998 |
| Administrative and waste services | 2,938 |
| Manufacturing | 2,899 |
| Professional and technical services | 2,513 |
Source: BLS QCEW, Mesa County, 2025 annual averages.
More than one in five private jobs in the county is in health care or social assistance. If you sell to other businesses, that's the biggest group of employers to understand.
Chart 2: What grew and shrank in 2025?
| Industry | 2024 jobs | 2025 jobs | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transportation and warehousing | 2,620 | 2,998 | +378 (14.4%) |
| Health care and social assistance | 12,228 | 12,565 | +337 (2.8%) |
| Administrative and waste services | 2,689 | 2,938 | +249 (9.3%) |
| Manufacturing | 3,097 | 2,899 | down 198 (6.4%) |
| Retail | 8,843 | 8,690 | down 153 (1.7%) |
| Finance and insurance | 1,609 | 1,502 | down 107 (6.7%) |
| Construction | 5,122 | 5,025 | down 97 (1.9%) |
| Mining, oil and gas | 1,526 | 1,437 | down 89 (5.8%) |
All employers: +38 jobs. Source: BLS QCEW, Mesa County.
Counting every employer, including government, jobs went from 66,864 to 66,902, a gain of 38: less a boom than a reshuffle. Of the 20 private industry groups, 13 lost jobs, most of them a little.
Chart 3: What grew most over five years?
| Industry | 2020 jobs | 2025 jobs | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance | 11,286 | 12,565 | +1,279 (11%) |
| Restaurants, bars and lodging | 6,058 | 7,070 | +1,012 (17%) |
| Transportation and warehousing | 2,182 | 2,998 | +816 (37%) |
| Retail | 8,176 | 8,690 | +514 (6%) |
| Construction | 4,576 | 5,025 | +449 (10%) |
| Finance and insurance | 1,910 | 1,502 | down 408 (21%) |
Source: BLS QCEW, Mesa County, annual averages.
Total county jobs grew from 60,563 in 2020 to 66,902 in 2025, about 10%. Finance and insurance lost the most, and manufacturing ended a little below 2020 (3,012 to 2,899). Some smaller industries grew fast, from small starting numbers, so a few new offices move the percentage a lot:
| Detailed industry | 2020 jobs | 2025 jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Mental health practitioners' offices | 52 | 150 |
| Landscaping services | 285 | 580 |
| Management consulting | 92 | 186 |
| Residential remodelers | 137 | 228 |
| Physical, occupational and speech therapy offices | 73 | 113 |
| Wineries | 79 | 119 |
Small numbers: a few new offices move these a lot.
Show more chartsCharts 4 and 5
Chart 4: Which industries pay the most?
The county's average annual pay across all jobs was $59,480 in 2025.
| Industry (private, 2025) | Average annual pay |
|---|---|
| Mining, oil and gas | $116,319 |
| Professional and technical services | $80,998 |
| Finance and insurance | $80,939 |
| Wholesale | $76,656 |
| Construction | $73,589 |
| Health care and social assistance | $65,248 |
| Transportation and warehousing | $63,005 |
| Retail | $42,631 |
| Restaurants, bars and lodging | $27,332 |
Line: county average, all jobs, $59,480
Utilities ($109,088) and company headquarters ($87,791) are left out; together about 425 jobs.
Utilities ($109,088) and company headquarters offices ($87,791) pay more than most of this list, but together have about 425 jobs, so we left them out. Average pay mixes full and part time jobs, which is part of why restaurants and retail sit low.
Chart 5: How big are most businesses here?
| Employees at the location (2023) | Businesses |
|---|---|
| Fewer than 5 | 2,729 |
| 5 to 9 | 845 |
| 10 to 19 | 646 |
| 20 to 49 | 411 |
| 50 to 99 | 125 |
| 100 or more | 71 |
Source: Census County Business Patterns 2023.
Of 4,827 business locations with employees in 2023, 57% had fewer than five people and about 1 in 70 had 100 or more. The count leaves out government and people who work for themselves with no employees.
What does this mean if I run a business here?
We're reading public data, not forecasting, but a few things stand out:
- Health care is the anchor. The biggest employer group kept growing in a flat year; practices, clinics and the businesses that serve them have been a steady market.
- Trucks and warehouses moved fastest in 2025, while finance, retail and manufacturing lost jobs.
- Most businesses you'd sell to are small. With most locations under five people, the owner usually decides. Plain pricing and a phone number people can reach go a long way.
We'll update these charts each year. We pulled these tables ourselves from the federal files; for the counts for your own line of work in Mesa County, call us at (970) 314-6088 and we'll look them up with you.