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Unemployment In Arizona Down One-Tenth Percent

Arizona ’s unemployment rate ticked down a bit in October to 8.2 percent. That was off a tenth of a percent from September.

Economist Aruna Murthy of the Department of Administration notes government employment gained 3,200 jobs, in spite of the federal government shutdown. But she says job growth in the state has been shrinking since July.

“There was very anemic growth in non-farm jobs,” Murthy said. “We gained only a net of 14,200 non-farm jobs in October, compared to the ten-year average of 16,300.”

Murthy says the gains in government employment were primarily at the local and state levels and were primarily in education. Murthy adds the way furloughed employees were classified altered the jobless rate. She says most were classified as “having a job but not at work,” rather than as being temporarily unemployed, which would have inflated the jobless rate.

Dennis Lambert was a morning host at KJZZ.