Sunny days ahead for Arizona jobs

While rain has been in the forecast the past couple of days, a bright future lays ahead for Arizona. The Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity released a report predicting the state would see an increase of jobs by the second quarter of 2020. According to the report, jobs will rise from 3,015,242 to 3,180,933, creating 165,691 new jobs.

With an annualized growth rate projection of 2.7 percent, certain sectors will provide more of these expected openings. The construction industry is expected to see the highest growth rate with 5.8 percent, followed by the manufacturing industry at 3.6 percent.

Arizona has already seen tremendous job growth, with companies like AQST Space Systems and Airobotics that moved their headquarters to the state. There have also been major expansions from companies such as TuSimple, Infosys and the Phoenix Precision Project.

The report also indicated largest job gains in sectors, in which Education and Health Services topped the list with a gain of 37,126 jobs and Professional and Business Services with 26,177 jobs.

“This is positive news that affects our entire state — and we have Arizona’s hard-working entrepreneurs, business leaders and employees to thank,” Gov. Doug Ducey said in a statement. “We will continue to focus on advancing Arizona’s business-friendly environment to bring even more jobs and opportunity to our state.”

Along with the increased employment, Arizona also can celebrate an increase in the median household income, according to the United States Census Bureau. The state’s median grew from 2016-2017 to $61,125, a 4.8 percent increase.

“Arizona’s economy is booming,” Governor Doug Ducey said. “Not only is Arizona projected to add 165,000 jobs over the next two years, Arizona families are taking home more dollars and incomes are rising at one of the fastest rates in the country.”

The report gives a full breakdown of what sectors in each county can expect when is comes to projected employment opportunities and can be found here.