Arizona posted one of the sharpest unemployment drops in the country in May, falling from a historic high of 13.4% in April to 8.9% last month, according to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But that drop still left May’s unemployment rate for the state at the highest point in almost nine years and was twice the jobless rate that Arizona posted at the beginning of year, before the COVID-19 pandemic hammered the economy.
The biggest job gains came in hotel and food services jobs, according to data from the Economic and Business Research Center at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management.
It said jobs in those categories rose from 178,500 in April to 216,900 in May.
