As Covid-19 pummels away in Arizona, unemployment in the state dipped slightly in December, with the restaurant and entertainment industries continuing to take the hardest hits.
The state unemployment rate was 7.5% last month, compared with 8% in November, putting Arizona among 20 states with the good fortune to post December decreases, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And it’s an improvement from the initial onslaught of the pandemic, when the jobless rate rose to as high as 10% last spring before dropping to 5.9% in July and August.
Since then, the numbers have been on a bit of a roller coaster, with the December jobless rate showing higher than the national average of 6.7%.
