US Economy Adds 162K Jobs in August, Arizona Unemployment Holds Steady
The Joint Economic Committee released its Monthly Employment Update for August, showing that jobs increased by 162,000, exceeding expectations of 53,000. This growth is a welcome sign after July's nonfarm payrolls fell by 23,000. Arizona's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.9 percent, but the state added 2,300 net payroll jobs in August.
The labor force participation rate ticked up by 0.2 percentage points to 61.6 percent, while the broadest measure of unemployment decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 7.7 percent. Over the past 12 months, Arizona added 23,100 net payroll jobs and saw a 0.6 percentage point increase in its unemployment rate.
The best performing sectors were leisure and hospitality (+62K) and state and local government (+40K), while information (-23K) and financial activities (-11K) struggled. Looking at the past year, private education and health services (+539K) and professional and business services (+152K) led the way.