Arizona lost more than 300,000 jobs in the Great Recession, and economists said it will probably be another couple of years before the state gets them all back, but Moody’s Analytics, a national firm, predicts Arizona will have the second highest rate of job growth in the country this year, behind only North Dakota and its booming oil industry.
Lee McPheters is not so sure about that and is not so sure local job creation will be so rapid. He is a research professor at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and said Arizona will add jobs this year, just not as many as Moody's thinks.
"I would be surprised if Arizona ranked second, but I think Arizona will definitely be in your top t10 growth states," explained McPheeters. "But, we’re expecting to see Florida where construction growth is actually stronger than in Arizona. We’re expecting to see Texas right in that top five."
He expected construction and financial services to create the most jobs in Arizona this year. McPheeters said the state’s population growth plummeted during the recession and that is why Arizona is not creating as many new jobs as Florida and Texas.
Updated 2/14/2014 3:07 p.m.
