(The Center Square) – Arizona ranks as the 20th best state to find a job in 2025, according to a new report.
WalletHub recently released a report highlighting the best states to find a job.
Chip Lupo, an analyst for the company, said WalletHub aimed to provide a “comprehensive look” that evaluates factors that would influence someone’s decision to relocate to a state for employment.
The study compared all 50 states across two key dimensions: job market and economic environment, Lupo said. He added WalletHub used 34 metrics ranging from employment growth, median annual income and average commute time to determine state rankings.
The top states on the list were Massachusetts, Connecticut and Minnesota. The states at the bottom were West Virginia, Louisiana and Kentucky.
Lupo told The Center Square that Arizona’s No. 20 ranking is a good score for the state’s economy and outlook for jobs.
WalletHub found Arizona is ranked ninth in the nation for employment outlook and eighth in job security, Lupo said. He added Arizona has a low share of people who have multiple jobs.
”Folks getting a job in Arizona can feel pretty confident that they’re gonna hold onto those jobs for a while,” he said.
An area where Arizona lagged behind other states was retirement access and participation, Lupo explained. He said the state ranked 44th in this category. According to Lupo, Arizona’s low ranking in this category may be due to its population being retirement-based.
In addition to this, Lugo said Arizona ranked “fairly low in the percentage of employees with private health insurance.”
Glenn Farley, the director of policy and research at the Common Sense Institute, described Arizona’s economy as being “average.” He told The Center Square that Arizona used to be among the top 10 states for jobs but has grown stagnant.
The state’s job market has stalled “for about a year,” he said.
Historically, he said, Arizona has been “one of the fastest growing states when it comes to jobs,” but it has been one of the slowest-growing states over the last 12 to 18 months.
Arizona’s slow job growth has occurred amid uncertainty about the federal job numbers, Farley said. He added job numbers have historically been reliable, but since the COVID-19 pandemic, “there’s been a lot more uncertainty” about the reliability of the real-time numbers.
The size of revisions has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the research director.
When revisions have occurred, he said Arizona has seen positive revisions.
“Real-time numbers might be showing no job growth in this state, but the revised numbers might be showing that we were actually growing at 1% or 2%. Not strong, but much stronger than was initially being reported,” he said.
In job growth statistics, Arizona is ranked 47th, according to Farley. However, he said he assumes they are “inaccurate,” with the state being ranked between 15 and 25 due to past positive revisions to job stats.
Farley said Arizona’s manufacturing sector has slowed down the most after being one of America’s fastest-growing markets.
The increase in the state’s manufacturing sector occurred from 2017 to 2022, but the industry has slowed since then, Farley explained.
He said the positive revisions will continue, but they won’t reach the 4% job growth rate the state saw in 2022.
The research director noted America’s labor force is growing more slowly due to fewer people graduating from the K-12 system and lower immigration levels. Despite this, Farley pointed out that even though fewer jobs are being generated, they are more productive.
