Yuma County jobless rate up to 22%
PHOENIX -- The state’s economy continues to be propelled along by people wanting some new place to live, or at least to fix up the one they own.
On paper, the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August did not move, remaining at 4.6 percent. And that’s only a tenth of a point below where it was a year ago.
It also remains above the national jobless rate of 3.9 percent in August.
But buried in the figures released Thursday by the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity is that the construction industry added 900 jobs last month and 15,100 in the past year.
While that may not seem like much, it has to be noted that overall private sector employment grew by 76,100 since the same time last year. And the construction industry makes up less
than 7 percent of total private sector employment.
To put it another way, construction employment grew at a rate of 10.2 percent annually, compared to 3.2 percent for the rest of the private sector. And Doug Walls, the agency’s research administrator, said that’s the strongest year-over-year growth rate for the industry since 2006.
Much of this is driven by consumer demand.
The most recent monthly figures show there were more than 4,500 permits for residential construction, including single-family homes, condos, townhouses and apartments. While that’s nowhere near the monthly peak of about 9,500 hit in 2005, there has been an upward trend since 2011.
That also tracks with a steady increase in the home price index since it bottomed out in 2012.
But there’s also a ripple effect from all this demand.
There’s been a 14.7 percent increase in the number of people employed in interior design in the past year, with other year-overyear increases in everything form architectural services to surveying. Even the number of people working in offices of real estate agents and brokers is up 11.4 percent. That’s not all. There also have been double-digit annual percentage increases in industries that produce what goes into these new residences, like plastics and millwork.
And there’s something else.
Those who already have a roof over their heads appear to be increasingly interested in home improvement, whether for themselves or to fix up for a sale, with an 11.8 percent annual increase in employment as nursery and garden centers and smaller but still significant employment boosts at home centers, hardware stores and other building material dealers.
“So growth within construction is not only positively impacting the construction industry, but it’s having an impact on multiple industries around the Arizona economy,’’ Walls said.
Employment in Yuma County’s construction sector has stayed remarkably consistent in the employer report, with 2,500 jobs reported in August, July and in August 2016.
The county’s overall unemployment rate inched still higher in August at 22 percent, almost a full percentage point over July.
It’s by far the highest in the state, following its historical pattern, and tracks with the usual trend of growing worse throughout the summer.
The unemployment report is based on a phone survey done across the country monthly for the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
According to a separate poll of employers who report the number of positions on their payroll, Yuma County reported 3.4 percent more jobs in August than July, good enough to top everyone in the state.
But the government sector grew by 11.6 percent versus 0.8 percent for the private sector, a pattern typically seen in August as public school teachers go back to work for the school year.
But the local job picture should brighten some later this year after an aerospace company, AQST Space Systems Group, secured the opening of a manufacturing facility in a hangar at Yuma International Airport that is expected to create about 200 jobs. The news was announced Sept. 13.
The Arizona@Work – Yuma County Career Centers were visited by 4,883 job seekers during the month of August compared to 2,927 last year at the same time. employer engagement officer Patrick Goetz said Thursday, continuing an upward trend tied to moving the agency’s Unemployment Insurance and Employment Service offices to the same Redondo Center Drive address.
Yuma County’s Arizona@Work locations posted 158 staff assisted job orders. Recruitments were held in August for the U.S Census Bureau, Trinity Services Group and the Great Salt Lake Brine.
The agency will partner with others to hold the annual Community Job and Education Fair on Oct. 3, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Yuma Civic Center, 1440 W. Desert Hills Drive.