Arizona Performed Well in 2019  

by Valorie H. Rice
Senior Specialist, Business Information

Current data releases as of 10 April 2020

There were several annual reports and indices released in the last month. Here is an overview of how Arizona performed and how it compared to other states and areas.

The U.S. Census Bureau released 2019 population estimates for counties and metropolitan areas on March 26. Based on the new data, the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler MSA is now the 10^th largest metropolitan area in the nation, replacing Boston. Maricopa County had the largest increase in the number of people between 2010 and 2019 than any other county in the nation. It is also the fourth largest county behind Los Angeles (CA), Cook (IL), and Harris (TX).  Most of the fastest-growing counties in the nation were in Texas; however, Williams County, North Dakota took the top spot with an increase of 67.8 percent. No county in Arizona grew quite that much! The fastest growing county in the state was Pinal, which increased 23.2 percent since 2010. Two Arizona counties, Cochise and Santa Cruz, lost population over that time.

Arizona had the seventh highest increase in real GDP by state for 2019, with a 3.1 percent change. The percent change in real GDP by state in 2019 ranged from a high of 4.4 percent in Texas to 0.6 percent in Nebraska. Real GDP in the United States grew 2.3 percent in 2019 according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis April 7 release.

Personal income increased 5.9 percent in Arizona for 2019, compared to the preliminary state personal income increase of 4.4 percent for the nation. Increases in earnings, property income (dividends, interest, and rent), and transfer receipts contributed to personal income growth for all states based on the March 24 Bureau of Economic Analysis release. Colorado was the state with the highest increase in personal income at 6.1 percent while in grew the least in West Virginia at 2.8 percent. Arizona was the state with the fourth largest increase in personal income behind Colorado, Utah, and Idaho. Three industries lead earnings growth in 2019 – professional, scientific, and technical services; health care and social assistance; and state and local government. These were leading contributors to growth in the five fastest growing states.

The highest paying occupations in Arizona for 2019 were management occupations followed by legal, healthcare practitioners and technical, computer and mathematical, and architecture and engineering. The lowest paying occupation groups were personal care and service; healthcare support; food preparation and serving; building and grounds cleaning and maintenance; and farming, fishing, and forestry. Both the top and bottom paying occupation groups in Arizona were the same as the nation, though not necessarily in the same order.  The average annual wage in 2019 for Arizona was $50,930 compared to $53,490 in the U.S. according to the March 31 Bureau of Labor Statistics data release. Arizona shared four of the top five occupation groups by employment with the U.S. in 2019. The largest employment in Arizona was in office and administrative support, sales and related, food preparation and serving related, transportation and material moving, and management. The number five occupation group for the nation was production (which ranked 12^th in Arizona). Customer service representatives had the most jobs in Arizona followed by retail salespersons, which had the highest number in the U.S. The state and the nation were similar in one more point in that eight of the ten occupations with the highest employment earned less than the average annual wage. The link to Arizona occupations with current employment and wage data is https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_az.htm.

Phoenix was among the top performing large metropolitan areas in the U.S. with a ranking of 12^th according to the recently released Milken Institute Best-Performing Cities 2020. The report provides a short synopsis of the top 25 large cities, which indicated favorable demographics and a diverse industrial mix as some of the strengths for Phoenix while a downside was relatively low wages compared to other western metros. Three Arizona metro areas made great strides in the rankings. Tucson moved up 25 spots to place at 77 in the ranking of 200 large cities while among the ranking of 201 small cities, Yuma shot up 30 spots to rank 64 and Sierra Vista-Douglas moved up 21 places to rank 161. While Arizona metros had gains in the 2020 ranking, Wheeling, WV-OH made the greatest leap moving up 111 spots to 70^th place in part because of rising demand in energy and natural resources. The remaining small metros in Arizona moved very little and ranked as follows: Prescott at 18, Lake Havasu City-Kingman at 48 and Flagstaff at 87. The Milken Institute tracks employment, wage and salary, and high-tech GDP indicators to determine performance.