(The Center Square) – The Arizona unemployment rate stayed the same between July and August, according to the August jobs report.
The unemployment rate remained at 3.4%, which is lower than the national seasonally adjusted rate of 4.2%.
Government added 26,000 jobs, private education gained 7,500 jobs, and “leisure and hospitality” gained 6,700 jobs. On the flip side, manufacturing, construction and finance were among the sectors that took hits. The Office of Economic Opportunity report noted that over 24,000 of the government jobs were in public education, which coincides with the state of the K-12 school year.
However, a Common Sense Institute report determined that in Arizona and in the United States as a whole, jobless claims have increased in recent weeks. The institute believes the the job market is “cooling,” but the state ranks 12th in job growth year-over-year; however, it’s considered slower than the year prior.
“Slowing employment growth, a rising unemployment rate, and rising jobless claims all signal a continue cooling of the Arizona and national job markets. Combined with the ongoing slowdown in price inflation, the overall pace of economic growth remains tepid,” the CSI report concluded.
From August 2023 there have been 66,100 jobs added and the seasonally adjusted labor force went up by 1.4%.