Tucson Jobs Continue to Increase

Even though the city's unemployment rate slightly increased, more Tucson jobs (Click here) were created last month.

The Arizona Department of Commerce recently reported that during September, Tucson saw its unemployment rate increase from 8.1 percent to 8.2 percent, which is lower than the national unemployment rate of 9.8 percent. This is a turn-around from August when the city's unemployment rate decreased from 8.6 percent to 8.1 percent.

Tucson had a total non-farm employment of 358,500 workers during September, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is up from 356,500 workers during August, but a 6.3 percent decrease from last year.

Four industries saw an increase in employment on a monthly basis, including: manufacturing by 100 jobs; trade, transportation and utilities by 200; professional and business services by 100 jobs; and government by 2,300 jobs. Employment in the mining and logging, financial activities and education and health services industries remained flat at 1,300 jobs, 16,600 jobs and 58,900 jobs, respectively.

The education and health services industry was the only one able to add jobs on a yearly basis, employing 58,900 workers, which is a 1.4 percent increase from last year. The mining and logging industry took the biggest hit when compared to last year, losing 35 percent of the industry's jobs.

Other industries that saw an over-the-year decrease in employment include:
construction by 27 percent
manufacturing by 3.3 percent
trade, transportation and utilities by 7.7 percent
information by 14.6 percent
financial activities by 4.6 percent
professional and business services by 10.7 percent
leisure and hospitality by 4.4 percent
other services by 6.5 percent
government by 3.2 percent