Arizona's Job Losses, Worse Than You Were Told in 2009 and 2010

03-04-2011 • AZcentral.com

Through the second half of 2010, economic data indicated that Arizona's job picture looked brighter and that its unemployment rate hovered under the national average. Erase that. The preliminary numbers were off-target. Because of an unusually large federal revision of Arizona's job counts and unemployment rates, the state Department of Commerce said Arizona has at least 40,000 fewer jobs than it had previously reported. Economists also said Thursday that the unemployment rate had been in double digits for 12 consecutive months, hitting 10 percent or higher for the 12 months from July 2009 through June 2010. Previously, those monthly rates had been reported in the 9 percent range, topping out at 9.6 percent. That means Arizona's rate has been higher than the national jobless rate for 31 of the 32 months from June 2008 through January 2011. It had appeared to be generally lower.