Is Administrative & Office Support a Good Job Market in Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO?

Executive Verdict

Market rating: competitive | Confidence: High

Denver is still a viable market for Administrative & Office Support, but it is not an easy one. Office and administrative support makes up 10.5% of metro employment and paid a mean $27.16 an hour in the latest BLS local wage release.[1] Recent sample data still shows more than 700 postings across more than 400 companies in the last 90 days, but Colorado-wide administrative and office support postings were down 7.0% year over year in April 2026 while employment was essentially flat.[6][5][4] Expect a steady flow of openings, with tougher competition for remote and senior roles than for on-site, customer-facing jobs.

Best positioned: Candidates with strong customer service, communication, and Microsoft Office skills who are open to on-site work in healthcare, hospitality, or retail have the best odds right now.[14][8][9]

Main caution: The biggest mistake is assuming remote or senior admin roles are common here; only about 5% of sampled postings were remote and only about 5% were senior.[8][10]

What Changed Recently

• Colorado administrative and office support postings were down 7.0% year over year in April 2026, while employment in the occupation was essentially flat.[5][4]: That points to slower replacement and expansion hiring, so speed and sector targeting matter more than they did in a looser market.
• Denver's citywide minimum wage rose to $19.29/hour on January 1, 2026, and a recent temporary executive assistant listing in metro Denver was posted at $19–$22/hour.[16][17]: Low-end admin pay is now much closer to the city wage floor, so entry roles need to offer better schedules, employer stability, or advancement to stand out.
• Denver-area unemployment was 4.3% in February 2026, matching the national 4.3% rate in April 2026.[28][24]: This is not a collapse market, but it is also not loose enough for employers to drop screening standards.
• Colorado recorded 21 WARN-eligible layoff notices affecting about 2,410 workers in April 2026, and metro Denver had notices tied to Green Bay Converting Inc. and a 95-person financial-sector layoff.[29][11][12]: Favor stable front-office employers and do not assume every large corporate back office is expanding this spring.

What This Means for You

Entry-Level Candidates

Difficulty: Moderate: about 80% of sampled postings are entry-level, but about 90% are on-site and the most common asks are customer service, communication, and attention to detail.[10][8][9]

Best target: Front-desk, admin coordinator, and general office roles in healthcare, hospitality, and retail, which make up most of the active sector mix in the sample.[14]

Biggest mistake: Applying only to remote roles or ignoring customer-facing work; remote is only about 5% of the mix.[8]

Next step: Build a one-page resume around customer service, Microsoft Office, data entry, and schedule/calendar examples, then target enterprise employers first.[9][22]

Mid-Career Candidates

Difficulty: High for pure step-up moves because only about 5% of sampled openings are senior and less than 5% are lead+.[10]

Best target: Office manager, executive support, and admin coordinator roles that add project ownership and cross-functional support rather than only calendar coverage.[13][23]

Biggest mistake: Leading with years of service instead of measurable process ownership, vendor coordination, reporting support, or executive-facing judgment.

Next step: Rewrite your resume around budgeting support, executive support, travel coordination, meeting cadence, and project-tool experience such as Asana, Monday.com, Notion, or ClickUp.[18]

Career Switchers

Difficulty: Moderate if you come from retail, hospitality, or customer service, because many postings emphasize customer service and communication more than a bachelor's degree.[9][27]

Best target: Reception, front desk, scheduling, and admin associate roles in healthcare or hospitality where transferable service skills matter most.[14][9]

Biggest mistake: Trying to jump straight into senior executive assistant roles without showing calendar, expense, documentation, and stakeholder-management depth.

Next step: Translate prior work into appointment setting, conflict resolution, documentation accuracy, and Microsoft Office examples, and be ready for on-site work.[9][8]

Salary Reality

moderate pay broad access

Observed local pay is better than the national admin baseline but still below Denver's overall wage level: BLS put metro office and administrative support pay at $27.16/hour in May 2024, versus $24.12 nationally for the occupation and $38.45/hour across all Denver occupations.[1] Directional newer signals are similar but not identical: sampled Denver postings center on about $57k to $70k or about $22 to $26 / hour, while Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows Colorado mean offered salary on new openings at ~$55,321 in Apr 2026 (n=1,986).[2][15][3]

That means Denver admin work can clear the city's $19.29/hour wage floor, but many general support roles will still feel middle-income rather than high-income in a metro with higher overall pay.[16][1]

The better-paying slice is narrower: senior roles are only about 5% of sampled openings, and the on-site requirement is heavy.[10][8]

Best-paying path: The strongest pay tends to sit in executive assistant and office manager tracks; national guides place executive assistant pay around $70,250 to $74,000 and office manager pay around $60,500 to $66,000.[31][32]

Caution: Do not read the upper end of posted ranges as typical pay for all admin applicants, because the local salary band mixes front desk, admin associate, coordinator, and higher-end office manager or executive support jobs into one bucket.[2]

Where the Opportunities Are Concentrated

Real opportunity is concentrated more by sector than by one dominant employer. In the last 90 days, the sample captured more than 700 postings across more than 400 companies, with healthcare at about 30%, healthcare services about 15%, hospitality about 20%, retail about 15%, and construction about 5% of activity.[6][14] Named repeat employers include Planet Fitness, Sage Restaurant Group, ComForCare Home Care, Circle K, Amerco, and Serenity Mental Health Centers.[7] This is also an early-career-heavy market. About 80% of sampled openings are entry level, only about 5% are senior, and less than 5% are lead+, which means the broadest opportunity is in general admin, front desk, and coordinator work rather than elite executive support.[10] The work is overwhelmingly location-bound: about 90% of sampled postings are on-site, just about 5% are hybrid, and about 5% are remote.[8] About 45% of sampled postings come from enterprise employers, but overall hiring is still fragmented, so candidates should pursue a wide employer list instead of waiting on one marquee company.[22][30]

• Healthcare and wellness front desk (high): Healthcare and healthcare services account for about 45% combined of local sample activity, and employers such as ComForCare Home Care and Serenity Mental Health Centers appear among the more active hirers.[14][7]
• Hospitality, retail, and membership admin (high): Hospitality is about 20% and retail about 15% of the mix, with Planet Fitness, Sage Restaurant Group, and Circle K among repeat employers.[14][7]
• Executive support and office management (limited): These roles can pay better, but competition is tighter because only about 5% of sampled openings are senior and less than 5% are lead+.[10]
• Enterprise admin associate and coordinator roles (moderate): About 45% of sampled postings come from enterprise employers, which rewards polished resumes, ATS-friendly keywords, and comfort with structured hiring processes.[22]

Where to focus: Focus first on on-site customer-facing admin roles in healthcare, wellness, hospitality, and retail, then use that traction to move toward higher-paying coordinator or executive-support work.[14][8][9]

Skills and Credentials Worth Pursuing

• Customer service and communication (table stakes): These are the clearest local screening criteria: customer service shows up in about 45% of sampled postings and communication in about 40%.[9]
• Microsoft Office / Microsoft 365 (table stakes): Microsoft Office appears in about 15% of local postings, and national tool guidance treats advanced Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint as baseline admin capability.[9][18]
• Data entry and accuracy (table stakes): Data entry appears in about 15% of local postings, while attention to detail appears in about 20%, which is common in coordinator and clerical screening.[9]
• Project and collaboration tools (differentiator): Asana, Monday.com, Notion, ClickUp, Trello, Teams, Slack, and Zoom map to the shift toward more autonomous, cross-functional support roles.[18][23]
• Applied AI tools and workflow automation (premium): Tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, Google Workspace AI, ChatGPT, Zapier, and Make are increasingly used to automate scheduling, email, document, and workflow tasks, and applied AI/data skills can earn up to 25% more.[19][20]
• Digital project management (premium): Robert Half links digital project management and AI-adjacent skills to salary gains of up to 4.1% in 2026.[13]
• PACE / upcoming SEAC (differentiator): Formal admin credentials are not commonly required locally, and the main certification signal in the sample appears in less than 5% of postings, so a professional admin credential works best as a differentiator rather than a checkbox; ASAP is launching the Strategic Executive Administrator Certification in Summer 2026.[33][21]

Adjacent Roles to Consider

• Patient Access Representative (both): Healthcare and healthcare services account for about 45% combined of local admin activity, so front-desk, scheduling, and customer-service experience transfers well.[14]
• Recruiting Coordinator (pivot): Calendar management, communication, and coordination work overlap heavily with office support, especially for candidates with strong stakeholder follow-through.
• Payroll or Accounts Payable Clerk (pivot): Detail orientation, documentation, and Microsoft Office skills transfer well from admin work into finance support.[9][18]
• Project Coordinator (both): Digital project management and cross-functional support are becoming more valuable in admin careers, making this a credible next step for organized mid-career candidates.[13][23]
• Facilities Coordinator (bridge): On-site-heavy office support backgrounds transfer well to vendor coordination, site logistics, badge access, and office operations.

30 / 60 / 90-Day Plan

First 30 Days

• Create three resume versions: front desk/customer-facing, general admin/data entry, and executive support/project coordination.[9][13]
• Build a target list around healthcare, hospitality, retail, and wellness employers, including Planet Fitness, Sage Restaurant Group, ComForCare Home Care, Circle K, Amerco, and Serenity Mental Health Centers.[14][7]
• Set a hard pay floor and commute filter before applying: sampled hourly roles center on about $22 to $26 / hour, but Denver's minimum wage is $19.29/hour and some contract executive assistant roles are listed at $19–$22/hour.[15][16][17]
• Prepare for on-site interviewing and fast start-date conversations; about 90% of sampled postings are on-site.[8]

Days 31-60

• Add proof of tool fluency to your resume and LinkedIn headline: Microsoft 365, Teams, Zoom, and one project tool such as Asana, Monday.com, Notion, or ClickUp.[18]
• Build one simple automation example using Copilot, ChatGPT, Zapier, or Make to show how you cut scheduling, inbox, or reporting time.[19][20]
• If you are targeting executive support, start ASAP PACE now and watch for the Strategic Executive Administrator Certification launch in Summer 2026.[21]
• Expand your search into Patient Access Representative, Recruiting Coordinator, Payroll/AP Clerk, and Project Coordinator roles if the core admin funnel is thin.

Days 61-90

• If interviews are still thin, shift from generic "administrative assistant" searches to sector-specific titles tied to healthcare, hospitality, and enterprise offices.[14][22]
• Reposition any customer-service-heavy background as office-ready by adding metrics on scheduling volume, conflict resolution, documentation accuracy, and Microsoft Office usage.[9]
• For mid-career applications, lead with process ownership, reporting, travel, vendor, or meeting-cadence wins because senior openings are only about 5% of the sampled mix.[10]
• Stop holding out for remote-only roles unless you already have niche executive-support depth; remote accounts for about 5% of the local sample.[8]

Methodology and Confidence

This April 2026 report was generated on May 10, 2026. Latest direct national data: May 2026. Latest direct Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO data: April 2026.

Confidence: Overall confidence: High. The report has solid local wage, unemployment, employer-mix, and salary signals, but some hiring direction and pay-readings rely on state or sampled-posting proxies.

Limitations

• The strongest local government wage benchmark for this category is from May 2024, so current pay direction relies partly on newer posting and offer signals rather than a fresh metro wage release.[1][2][3]
• Statewide labor data from Revelio Public Labor Statistics was used as a proxy where metro-by-occupation trend data was not available, so Colorado hiring direction may not match Denver exactly.[4][5]
• The Callings.ai job database is a partial, deduplicated sample of online postings, so leading employer names, skill patterns, and work-arrangement mix are more useful than exact posting counts or precise market shares.[6][7][8][9]
• This category groups several different office roles together, so front desk, executive assistant, office manager, and data-entry jobs can have meaningfully different pay and competition levels inside the same metro view.[2][10]
• Recent WARN notices were local but not occupation-specific, so they should be read as caution signals for the market backdrop, not as confirmed admin-specific job loss.[11][12]

References

1. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Employment and Wages in Denver-Aurora-Centennial — May 2024 · 2024-06 · bls.gov
2. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-04 · callings.ai
3. Reveliolabs. Salaries - Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-04 · reveliolabs.com
4. Reveliolabs. Employment - Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-04 · reveliolabs.com
5. Reveliolabs. Job Openings - Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-04 · reveliolabs.com
6. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-04 · callings.ai
7. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-04 · callings.ai
8. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-04 · callings.ai
9. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-04 · callings.ai
10. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-04 · callings.ai
11. Warntracker. Live Layoffs from Public WARN records - WARNTracker.com · 2026-04 · warntracker.com
12. Threads. Denver Business Journal (@denbizjournal) on Threads · 2026-04 · threads.com
13. Multivu. Robert Half Releases 2026 Salary Guide Highlighting Key Compensation Trends Amid a Complex Job Market · 2025-09 · multivu.com
14. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-04 · callings.ai
15. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-04 · callings.ai
16. Denvergov. Denver's Minimum Wage · 2026-01 · denvergov.org
17. Robert Half. Executive Assistant Jobs in Aurora, CO · 2026-05 · roberthalf.com
18. Frontlinesourcegroup. Top Skills Administrative Professionals Need in 2026 · 2024-05 · frontlinesourcegroup.com
19. Sintra. 9 Best AI Executive Assistant Tools in 2026 · 2026-03 · sintra.ai
20. Robert Half. AI for administrative assistants: Tools, skills and career growth tips · 2025-10 · roberthalf.com
21. Asaporg. Professional Administrative Certification of Excellence | ASAP · 2026-01 · asaporg.com
22. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-04 · callings.ai
23. Lhh. Lhh - role_evolution · 2026-01 · lhh.com
24. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-04 · data.bls.gov
25. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-04 · data.bls.gov
26. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-03 · data.bls.gov
27. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-04 · callings.ai
28. Federal Reserve Economic Data. Unemployment Rate in Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO (MSA) · 2026-04 · fred.stlouisfed.org
29. Reveliolabs. Mass-layoff Notices - Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-04 · reveliolabs.com
30. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-04 · callings.ai
31. Robert Half. 2026 Administrative and Customer Support Salary Trends: The Skills and Roles Driving Growth · 2025-11 · roberthalf.com
32. Bluesignal. 2026 Compensation Trends and Salary Guide - Blue Signal Search · 2025-11 · bluesignal.com
33. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-04 · callings.ai