Arizona job growth soars to high marks in the country

From tech to bio-science, from manufacturing to health care, Arizona’s job market has been getting top marks month after month, year after year. And based off data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), that trend doesn’t seem to be changing, slowing down, or reversing any time soon.

In fact, Arizona’s overall job growth has recently come in at second place in the nation in terms of year-over-year job growth.

According to BLS, Arizona added more than 80,000 new non-farm jobs from June of 2018 to June of this year. Employment growth saw a 2.8-percent uptick in that period with the help of sectors such as education, health care, construction, and business services all making solid gains.

“Arizona’s booming economy has made our state a jobs juggernaut, delivering more jobs, bigger paychecks and greater opportunities for all,” said Governor Ducey, in a statement. “This success didn’t happen by accident. It’s thanks to the hard work of employees, job creators and entrepreneurs and Arizona’s pro-business policies, low taxes and light regulations.”

Education and health services added more than 23,000 jobs as construction saw over 18,000 added, and business services brought in an additional 13,500 new jobs. This illustrates the state’s economic surge of the past decade. Arizona was named the fourth fastest-growing economy in the country last year, second in the country for personal income growth and third for economic momentum.

“When we have strong job growth, it means we’re also going to have corresponding population growth,” economist Jim Rounds said. “But we’re moving toward a more stable economy because of public policies. We’ve done a good job of hitting the reset button on our economy as far as volume. When you’re developing higher wage jobs, that’s how you lift the local economy.”

In total, more than 300,000 new jobs have been added since 2015. By next year, Arizona is projected to add another 165,000 new jobs.

Pulling back a little further economically, the state has seen a steady incline in major areas such as wages, small business growth, and business development. Wage growth in the Phoenix area saw the biggest jump among small-businesses in recent years among major metropolitan cities in the country as well. In fact, the Phoenix area welcomed 42 new businesses and three corporate headquarters in 2018, representing more than $1.18 billion in capital investment and more than 8,600 jobs.