Arizona's unemployment rate continues to decline, workforce grows

Unemployment rates have been steadily declining in Arizona since October, falling to 5.2%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that it has gone down a full percentage from just two months earlier and almost one-third of the state’s pandemic high. It was the fourth straight month of a falling unemployment rate for the state and the overall workforce has continued growing. The 3.65 million people in the Arizona workforce in October was the most in the state since 1976, the first year for which BLS numbers are available.

There were job gains spread across all categories with the biggest increase noted in the leisure and hospitality industry that was battered last year by pandemic shutdowns and travel bans. According to BLS, jobs in Arizona, especially in this sector grew 17.6% from last year. Andrew Sugrue, assistant director of policy and advocacy at the Arizona Center for Economic Progress says, "It represents how much the economy has started to rebound from the pandemic lows. And it represents that people are ready to be rehired and ready to be employed in the aftermath of the pandemic.”

Source: Gila Herald