by Valorie H. Rice Senior Specialist, Business Information
Current Data Releases as of 29 March 2019
Veterans comprised 7.0% of the Arizona workforce during 2018, a higher rate than the nation at 5.9%. The percent of the workforce that are veterans ranged greatly among states, from 11.7% in Alaska to 2.4% in New Jersey. The Bureau of Labor Statistics produces an annual Employment Situation of Veterans, the most recent released on March 21. The unemployment rate for veterans was lower in Arizona for 2018, at 4.6% compared to the 5.2% posted for 2017. Nationally, the rate also dropped from 3.7% to 3.5%.
The occupation with the largest employment in Arizona last year was customer service representative. Nationally, it was retail sales, which happened to be the second highest for Arizona. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released occupational employment and wage data for 2018 on March 29. Occupational categories with the highest average pay in the U.S. and Arizona were management occupations followed by legal occupations. Food preparation and serving occupations and farming, fishing, and forestry occupations landed at the bottom of the pay spectrum both nationally and in the state. Flagstaff was among the metropolitan areas with the highest employment share of food preparation and serving related occupations in the nation. The occupation with the largest employment in Flagstaff was waiters and waitresses. The occupations with the largest number of workers in 2018 for other Arizona metropolitan areas: cashiers for Lake Havasu City-Kingman, retail salespersons for Prescott, customer service representatives in both Phoenix and Tucson, farm workers in Yuma, and combined food prep and serving workers (incl. fast food) in Sierra Vista-Douglas.
Arizona employment rose 2.7% year-over-year in February, one percentage point higher than the nation at 1.7%. All sectors reported over-the-year job growth in February, according to the March 21 Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity release. Education and health services added the most jobs followed by construction. Over-the-year job growth in Arizona metro areas for February: Phoenix 3.1%, Lake Havasu City-Kingman 3.0%, Yuma 2.5%, Flagstaff 1.4%, Tucson 1.4%, Prescott 0.8%, and Sierra Vista-Douglas -0.9%. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Arizona remained at 5.1% for February.
The U.S. trade deficit dropped $8.8 billion to land at $51.1 billion in January after a large increase in December. Exports rose $1.9 billion over-the-month to $207.3 billion while imports decreased to $258.5 billion in January. Year-over-year, the deficit of goods and services was 3.7% smaller than January 2018 according to the March 27 joint release from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and U.S. Census Bureau. February trade data are scheduled to be released April 17.
Phoenix house prices rose 7.5% over-the-year in January according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller indices released March 26. Only Las Vegas had higher year-over-year gains at 10.5%. In comparison, U.S. home prices gained 4.3% and the 20-city composite increased 3.6%. All of these price gains were lower than in December. The report compared the year-over-year price changes for January 2019 versus January 2018 and Phoenix was the only city to have a notable acceleration in house price gains (going from 5.8% to 7.5%). House prices rose at a lower rate in 16 of the 20 cities. Some of the cities with the highest price gains in January 2018 are among those with the lowest increases this January, such as San Francisco, which went from 10.2% to 1.8%.
Personal income in Arizona increased 5.5% in 2018, the fifth highest increase among states. State personal income rose 4.5% in the U.S. according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Increases in personal income for 2018 ranged from 6.8% in Washington to 2.9% in Hawaii. Net earnings was a leading contributor to growth in the five fastest growing states – Washington, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona.
U.S. Real GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.2% in the fourth quarter 2018 according to the March 28 Bureau of Economic Analysis release. This was a little less than the initial estimate of 2.6% for the quarter. The third quarter GDP was 3.4% and with the release of fourth quarter figures, real GDP growth for all of 2018 registered at 2.9% compared to 2.2% in 2017 and 1.6% in 2016.
