Colorado › Occupations › SOC 33-0000 · One of the 22 major groups
Protective Service Occupations
Across the 21 of this group's 24 occupations with published Colorado employment, 65,610 Coloradans work in protective service occupations (3 more occupations have no published Colorado estimate, so the true total is somewhat higher). Weighted by those published jobs, the group's mean exposure score is 24.5 of 100, and 0.0% of the jobs are in occupations where most or a large minority of tasks overlap with AI capabilities assessed in 2023.
Security Guards; Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers; Correctional Officers and Jailers — the largest of this group's 24 occupations in Colorado.
Every statewide figure on this page is computed directly on published BLS OEWS Colorado state data — a different basis from the county estimates elsewhere on this site, which model occupation mixes from industry mix. The one county table below is labeled accordingly.
- Published CO employment
- 65,610 across 21 of 24 occupations · OEWS 2025
- Employment-weighted mean score
- 24.5 0–100 scale · published statewide data only
- High + substantial share
- 0.0% of the group's published jobs · score ≥ 45 of 100
- CO median wages
- $33,540–$126,810 range across the 22 occupations with published medians · annual, 2025
Plate I
Tier mix within the group
How this group's 24 occupations — and its 65,610 published Colorado jobs — split across the four task-overlap tiers (cuts at 60/45/30 on the 0–100 score scale).
| Tier | Occupations | Published CO jobs | Share of published jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| high overlap | 0 | 0 | 0.0% |
| substantial overlap | 0 | 0 | 0.0% |
| some overlap | 10 | 12,210 | 18.6% |
| little overlap | 14 | 53,400 | 81.4% |
Plate II
The ten largest occupations in this group
| Occupation | Tier | Score | CO jobs | CO median wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Security Guards | little overlap | 25.0 | 16,890 | $45,150 |
| Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers | little overlap | 24.7 | 9,610 | $97,350 |
| Correctional Officers and Jailers | little overlap | 23.9 | 7,290 | $62,140 |
| Firefighters | little overlap | 8.8 | 6,510 | $74,170 |
| Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers | little overlap | 16.0 | 5,430 | $35,640 |
| Protective Service Workers, All Other | some overlap | 34.1 | 4,640 | $44,340 |
| Crossing Guards and Flaggers | little overlap | 26.3 | 2,810 | $37,620 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives | some overlap | 35.5 | 2,790 | $126,810 |
| Detectives and Criminal Investigators | some overlap | 34.8 | 1,930 | $105,480 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers | some overlap | 40.6 | 1,900 | $102,580 |
Plate III
Where this work concentrates
The six counties where this group is the largest share of local jobs. These county figures are estimates — modeled from each county's industry mix, not published counts (how county estimates are built) — and a share of a small county's job base can rank above a metro county's much larger absolute employment.
| County | Est. share of county jobs | Est. group jobs | Data quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crowley | 9.1% | 102 | Heavily imputed estimate |
| Lincoln | 7.7% | 168 | Partially imputed estimate |
| Fremont | 7.0% | 1,021 | Partially imputed estimate |
| Gilpin | 6.3% | 302 | Heavily imputed estimate |
| Hinsdale | 5.6% | 17 | Partially imputed estimate |
| Dolores | 5.3% | 28 | Heavily imputed estimate |