by Valorie H. Rice
Senior Specialist, Business Information
Current Data Releases as of 19 April 2019
Maricopa County was the fourth most populous county in the nation in 2018 according to the most recent population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, released April 18. It ranked as the county with the highest numeric growth in the U.S. over-the-year, and the second highest behind Harris County, TX when comparing numerical growth between 2010 and 2018. Williams County, ND had the highest percent growth for both of those periods. This placed the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale metropolitan area (consisting of Maricopa and Pinal counties) among the top-growing metropolitan areas in terms of number of people added between 2017 and 2018 – only Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington added more people. Comparing counties within Arizona, between 2010 and 2018 both Cochise and Santa Cruz counties lost population while Pinal and Maricopa counties were the top-growing counties.
U.S. employment rose by 196,000 in March on a seasonally adjusted basis. January and February job numbers were revised upward. After revisions, job gains averages 180,000 per month over the last three months according to the April 5 release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Health care was the industry with the largest gains for the month. The U.S. seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.8% for March.
There were 1,492 bankruptcy filings in Arizona during March, an increase of 4.6% over the same month last year. Chapter 11, which is reorganization, had gone down the first two months of 2019 year-to-year, but increased in March. Year-to-date, total bankruptcies grew 9.9% compared to the same period a year ago. The Phoenix office increased 11.9% year-to-date while the Tucson office increased 5.7% and the Yuma office was up 3.2%. The Phoenix office includes Apache, Coconino, Gila, Maricopa, Navajo, and Yavapai counties. The Tucson office handles Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, Pima, Pinal, and Santa Cruz counties, while the Yuma office represents La Paz, Mohave, and Yuma counties.
Arizona employment rose by 68,200 in March year-over-year. That translated into 2.4% growth compared to 1.7% for the nation. All sectors reported over-the-year job growth for the month. Education and health services added the most jobs followed by construction. Over-the-year job growth in Arizona metro areas for March: Phoenix 2.8%, Lake Havasu City-Kingman 1.8%, Yuma 2.1%, Tucson 1.4%, Prescott 0.6%, Flagstaff 0.1% and Sierra Vista-Douglas 0.0%. The April 18 Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity release reported a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Arizona at 5.0% for March, well above the 3.8% rate for the U.S.
The U.S. trade deficit fell to $49.4 billion in February. Both exports and import rose over-the-month. Exports increased $2.3 billion to $209.7 billion while imports increased $0.6 billion to reach $259.1 billion for the month. Year-to-date, the goods and services deficit was 7.6% smaller than the same period in 2018 according to the April 17 joint release from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and U.S. Census Bureau.
