TUCSON, Arizona (13 News) – As far as unemployment goes, the numbers are low.
State reports show that the unemployment rate has been below 3.5% for the past few months, something Arizona has never seen before.
“There are plenty of job opportunities out there,” said George Hammond, director of the Economic Business Research Center at the University of Arizona. “It’s generally pretty easy to find a job, and those jobs generally pay better.”
The reason for this is that the unemployment rate in Arizona is currently at 3.4%, just 0.1 percent above the historic low. It has been at 3.4% for months.
“It’s a double-edged sword – it’s not such a great thing for employers,” Hammond said. “It means we have to work much harder to attract and retain the talent we need, and we generally have to pay more for it than we did when the labor market was looser.”
Pima County is one of these employers.
13 News was shared with you They said the district has been struggling with employment development for some time, but despite the hurdle of the tight labor market, only positive changes have been observed.
“We process 5,000 applications every month here in Pima County,” said Matt O’Connor, Pima County’s talent acquisition manager. “We have 125 to 150 open positions here at any given time… and we’re constantly hiring. We have one of the highest employee numbers we’ve had since we’ve been here in Pima County.”
“This situation is not going to last forever,” Hammond said. “We’re seeing the national labor market get a little bit softer over the last five or six months. I think that will ultimately lead to the labor market here in Arizona getting a little bit looser.”
When it comes to attracting qualified employees, employers’ work is far from over.
“The feedback I get from other organizations is the same as ours: they continue to see an increase in the number and quality of applications and their recruitment rates continue to improve,” O’Connor said.
These data also come at a time when the government is creating jobs at record levels.
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