Articles and Updates

U.S. unemployment rate declines, how does Arizona compare nationally?

February 5, 2010

By Maile L. Nadelhoffer

The U.S. unemployment rate declined from 10.0% to 9.7% in January and nonfarm payroll employment remained essentially unchanged (-20,000) according to preliminary estimates released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics today.

January unemployment figures will not be available for Arizona until later this month. However, preliminary figures show Arizona's December unemployment rate at 9.1%, up slightly from 8.9% in November, but still down from its record peak of 9.3% in September and October. In June of 2007, Arizona's unemployment rate was 3.6%. While the unemployment rate in Arizona has followed the national trend, throughout this recession Arizona's unemployment rate has remained below the national figure. Arizona is in the middle of the pack nationally, ranking 28th among the states. Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 14.6% and North Dakota the lowest with 4.4%.

The Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale MSA has fared better than the state as a whole and is ranked 14th (not seasonally adjusted) among 49 large metro areas in the U.S. with a December unemployment rate of 8.2% (p). The Tucson metro area comes in 126th out of 372 U.S. metro areas ranked (not seasonally adjusted) with a December unadjusted rate of 8.0% (p).

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

For additional information, please contact us.