By George W. Hammond, EBRC director and Eller research professor
In 2017, 33,188 Arizona jobs were held by residents of other states
The pandemic has focused attention on remote work, also known as working from home. This can take many different forms. A remote worker might both live in Arizona and have a job located here. A remote worker might also live in Arizona and have a job located in another state. The reverse might also be true: a resident of another state might have a job located in Arizona.
Two weeks ago, Arizona’s Economy published “Who Lives in Arizona But Has a Job in Another State? In this post I continue the discussion of remote work by reversing that question and examine data on the number of residents of other states with jobs in Arizona.
The American Community Survey provides data on the number of residents of a state or local area that work from home, but it does not tell us where the job is located. It turns out that the U.S. Census Bureau also maintains a dataset that can give us a sense of how many residents of other states have jobs located here. However, one drawback of these data for this purpose is that we cannot use it to explore work from home at the same time. In other words, a California resident with a job in Arizona might be working entirely remotely, but we cannot rule out that the resident is actually traveling to Arizona to work. It seems unlikely but remains a possibility.
One easy way to access these data is through the Census Bureau’s On The Map website. The estimates on the site arise from the linkage of state and federal administrative data sets on the location of jobs and the place of residence of workers. Unemployment insurance records and the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages are the primary source of information on the location of jobs. A variety of federal administrative data sets provide the place of residence of workers. All data used are subject to strict confidentiality requirements.
These data suggested that there were 2.206 million Arizona private sector primary jobs in 2017 (latest year available). Of that total, 2.173 million were held by state residents and 33,188 were held by residents of other states (including the District of Columbia). For the Phoenix MSA, 17,629 jobs were held by residents of other states. For the Tucson MSA, 1,563 jobs were held by residents of other states.
Exhibit 1 shows the top 10 states with residents holding jobs in Arizona, Phoenix, and Tucson in 2017. California posted the most residents with jobs in Arizona, followed by New Mexico and Nevada. The top three were the same for the Phoenix MSA. The top two were the same for Tucson, but Texas edged out Nevada for third.
Exhibit 1: Residents of Other States with Jobs in Arizona, Top 10 States, Private Sector Primary Jobs, LEHD, 2017
Exhibit 2 shows state residents with jobs in Arizona by Census region. For Arizona, Phoenix, and Tucson, the West region accounted for the most residents, followed by the South, Midwest, and Northeast regions.
Exhibit 2: Residents of Other States with Jobs in Arizona by Census Region, Private Sector Primary Jobs, LEHD, 2017
Exhibit 3 shows residents of other states with jobs in Arizona for 2017 for Arizona, Phoenix, and Tucson.
Exhibit 3: Residents of Other States with Jobs in Arizona by State, Private Sector Primary Jobs, LEHD, 2017
