March 24, 2016 / Modified mar 24, 2016 1 p.m.

Arizona Job Numbers Top Prerecession Highs; Tucson Lags

State employment totals top recent bests, but Tucson has only recovered 76 percent of the jobs lost.

Job fair
Vanessa Barchfield

Listen:

Nearly 2.7 million Arizonans were employed in October 2007.

The Great Recession took a toll on the job market, and it has been in recovery ever since.

That changed last month, according to a report from the Arizona Department of Administration.

The state had 2,200 more jobs in February 2016 than it did at the prerecession peak.

The same cannot be said of Tucson.

Tucson has recovered 76.4 percent of the jobs lost in the Great Recession.

Job Recovery
Arizona Department of Administration

Tucson has one of the worst recovery percentages of the metropolitan areas in Arizona, ahead of only Lake Havasu City-Kingman MSA, an area that report authors said is more closely tied to the economy of Las Vegas, Nev. than Arizona.

The report also showed a 0.1 percentage point drop in Arizona's unemployment rate, which is now 5.5 percent.

The state added 25,300 jobs in February, higher than the post-recessionary average of 23,000.

Over the year, Arizona's nonfarm employment has grown by 3 percent, with the private sector accounting for all job gains. Government employment has dropped by 2,400 jobs in the past year.

By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona