Sorry for the delay, this came out about 2 weeks ago. Good news, 23,400 jobs were created. Lower than the normal rate of seasonal activity but positive. Over half of the jobs, 12,000 were in the private sector. I keep seeing more and more job relocations to the state.
Did you see that First Solar selected Mesa for their new plant. Read about it here.
Seasonal Job Gains in February; Unemployment Rate Unchanged at 9.6%
Arizona’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged in February at 9.6%. The rate has been 9.6% for four months in a row (Nov 10 – Feb 11). At the same time last year the rate was 10.2%
in Arizona. The U.S. unemployment rate dropped one tenth of a percentage point from 9.0% in January to 8.9% in February (see figure 1). Arizona’s economy added 1.0% or 23,400 nonfarm jobs in February. These were predominantly seasonal gains and slightly lower than the historic average. The average gain for February between 2001 and 2010 was 1.2%, or 27,700 jobs. Before the recession, the average February gain in Arizona was 1.5% or about 33,900 jobs. Looking back to 1990, the only February to post job losses was in 2009 (see figure 2).
The Government Sector led the way with hiring in Local and State Public Education as the schools returned to full staffing levels after the holiday breaks. Local Public Education added 9,100 jobs and State Public Education added 2,400 jobs. Federal Government added 100 jobs. Outside of Public Education, State Government was flat and Local Government had a net loss.
The Private Sector was responsible for over half the total nonfarm gains, adding 12,000 jobs in February.
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