Posted April 29th, 2008 by cheesman

In March, private sector employment in Phoenix generated 6,200 jobs. Although the increase is certainly good news, over the last 12 months approximately 17,600 Phoenix jobs have been lost. According to the Arizona Department of Commerce, private employment in the metro area supplied 1.66 million jobs as of March this year, which is up from the prior month, but still less than March 2007.
    
Over the last year around 20,100 Phoenix jobs have been lost in the construction industry. With the housing market suffering, fewer new homes have been built, which effects employers’ ability to generate work for those in construction. Also as a possible result of the real estate crisis, the financial services sector had to do away with 4,900 Phoenix jobs.  
    
Tourism added 3,000 jobs over the last year, 2,700 of which came into being between February and March of this year.  
    
The recent increase in jobs in Phoenix have helped to keep the unemployment rate steady at 3.5 percent, the same as February. The percentage of the population who have been unable to find work remains lower than the Arizona’s state average of 4.0 percent and the national average of 5.1 percent.
    
According to Dennis Doby, senior director of research administration for the Arizona Department of Commerce, total payroll employment statewide has been jumping up and down for sometime now. One month figures will be positive, whereas the next month will show a decrease in jobs in Phoenix and elsewhere in the state. Doby says that although the current unemployment rates appear to show some signs of improvement, this may not be case.

He says that residents “have to be looking for work…if people are not actively looking for work, a low unemployment rate may not necessarily be indicative of a good economy.” In situations where people are discourage about finding a job in Phoenix or elsewhere, there is no telling how many individuals are actually unable to find work.
    
News about soon-to-be-created Phoenix, Arizona jobs may soon help to ease the discouraged unemployed. Recently the Phoenix Children’s Hospital announced that they will soon begin work on a multiyear expansion project that estimates say will cost around $588 million. The hospital estimates that the expansion will create somewhere between 1,800 and 2,000 Phoenix jobs between now and 2012.
    
Over the next few years the hospital plans to increase the number of beds available to ill children from 299 to 632, a 110 of which are planned to be added in the Newborn Intensive care Unit at McDowell Road.
    
The first stage of the expansion, which is scheduled to begin this year will create a new hospital, which will feature an 11-story patient tower and outpatient clinic space, a new central plant, and a 750-car parking garage. It is unknown at this time how many of these new Phoenix jobs will be created this year.