PHOENIX - Almost everywhere you look around the Valley, jobs are on the rise. In fact, the University of Arizona Economic and Business Research Center says, "the state continues to outpace the nation in job creation."
The Valley added 60,200 jobs in 2016. Thousands of them were in the healthcare and bioscience sectors, where jobs are growing three times the national average. This is thanks, in part, to incentives from the state and cities, including Phoenix.
“Phoenix economy is changing massively,” said Mayor Greg Stanton. “We used to be an economy reliant on growth and real estate. Now we're building a more innovative tech-based economy. We're building a more export based economy.”
Technology companies, especially those in the old warehouse district, are exploding. There were 67 of them in 2012. Now there are nearly 300.
Plus, both healthcare and finance jobs are at all-time highs.
Simultaneously, public layoff announcements are down. Banner Health slashed 500 jobs, in one of just five Arizona employers that issued public layoff notices in the first half of this year.
Meanwhile, 49 companies have made public hiring announcements for 11,440 new jobs. This includes Quicken Loans sending 1,100 employees to the One North Central Building in downtown Phoenix.
Overall, the unemployment rate is holding steady. It’s now at 4.5 percent, down from a high of 10.4 percent during the Great Recession.
It's not just jobs that are increasing in the Valley -- the salaries workers are earning are, too. Personal income grew 4.3 percent last year. And according to research from the University of Arizona, it’s set to grow even more both this year and next year.