Citizen Staff Report
Citizen Staff Report
news@tucsoncitizen.com
Tucson employment took a 2.5 percent hit in January, according to a report released Thursday by the Department of Economic Security.
That decline, while painful, is much smaller than in Phoenix or the state as a whole.
Nonfarm employment here fell by 9,700 jobs, compared with numbers from January 2008.
Goods-producing companies took the largest hit compared with year-earlier employment numbers. Manufacturing was down 3 percent, mining off 10 percent and construction employment falling a whopping 25 percent.
The sector that showed the greatest increase in employment was government, up 5,900 jobs from January 2008.
Other findings in the report, comparing January 2009 with the same month a year earlier:
• Jobs in trade, which includes retail and transportation, were down 5,200 jobs, or 8.2 percent. Local stores, excluding food and beverage stores, have cut 4,300 jobs in the past year.
• Professional and business services, were down 3,000 jobs, or 5.8 percent, with employment services plunging 27 percent.
• Healthcare created 2,100 jobs, up 5 percent.
• Restaurants and bars lost 1,400 jobs – a 4.9 percent drop.
• Phoenix lost 126,700 jobs in the 12 months ending in January – 37,500 in construction and another 25,600 in employment services. Metro Phoenix employment is down 6.7 percent.
• Arizona overall has lost 155,400 jobs in the last year, a decline of 5.9 percent. Unemployment in the state rose to 7 percent – up from 4.9 percent a year earlier. That still is lower than the national unemployment rate, which stood at 7.6 percent last month.
Unemployment figures for Arizona’s cities were not available.