Jobs, Jobs, Jobs! That is the answer to this recession. Finally we are starting to see some reasonable job growth both here in Arizona and nationally. In Arizona, 17,200 jobs were created in April. That is after 10,200 were created in March for a combined 27,400 new jobs over the past 2 months here in Arizona. Over 91% of those jobs are in the metro Phoenix area.
Nationally there were 268,000 jobs created in April and that was the best month in nearly a year. Also, this was 3 months in a row of over 200,000 jobs created per month.
Jobs are the answer to this recovery. It amazes me that no one sees a housing recovery? There are now under 20,000 single family homes for sale in Arizona. There is nearly the same amount under contract. We were selling over 9,000 homes per month. But that can’t continue as there is no inventory. It is like 2005 all over again. Every home is seeing multiple offers. Fear of lending BS makes sellers lean towards cash buyers, giving the investor the upper hand in purchasing homes.
Let’s get back to jobs. Specifically looking at the metro Phoenix jobs market. All my JOBS data is coming from the Workforce AZ job site. You can check my numbers right here! Arizona has a 9.3 unemployment rate, however, when looking at metro Phoenix that number drops to 8.1%. The big job problem in Arizona is Yuma with 25% unemployment. I think Yuma really deserves a port in Mexico and a new oil refinery.
Back to metro Phoenix, there are 173,700 unemployed here in the valley. Which means that in February there were 198,634 people unemployed and that number has dropped by over 12% or 24,934 in the past 2 months. That is awesome news. Let’s hope it continues.
I looked at the 2007 report to compare where we are today versus then.
Total nonfarm payroll 1,961,800 in 2007 and today it is 1,714,800. 247,000 less jobs.
Private Sector jobs 1,718,900 versus 1,474,800. 244,000 less
Government 242,900 versus today at 240,000. 2,900 less.
Manufacturing 139,300 versus 111,100. 28,200 less.
Construction 186,600 versus 80,400. 106,200. The majority of job losses here in metro Phoenix was in the construction industry. Now that houses are scarce, homes will need to be built and jobs will be created.
Trade, transportation and utilities 389,400 versus 353,000. Down by 36,400.
Information 31,200 versus 27,900. Down by 3,300.
Financial Activities 158,100 versus 137,600. Down by 21,500.
Professional and Business Services 337,900 versus 262,900. Down by 75,000. Wow this is huge!
Educational and Health Services 202,300 versus 251,800. Hmmm, an increase here of 49,500! Here is to Health Care!
Leisure and Hospitality 194,100 versus 183,900. Down 10,200.
Other 77,000 versus 63,200. Down 13,800.
I hope you found this report interesting and helpful!
Just my opinion…Jeff R Cameron
480-652-2004