Arizona's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained stuck at 5.1 percent in July.
The state’s rate is now virtually unchanged for a year, even as the national jobless rate dropped a tenth of a point last month to 4.3 percent.
Although the state lost 9,400 private sector jobs between June and July, that’s not unusual for this time of year.
Doug Walls of the Office of Economic Opportunity said a separate household survey found that the number of people now in the workforce is about 72,000 more than a year ago.
"We're seeing much more positive trends," Walls said. "We're seeing many more people coming into the labor force. And then those people not only coming in but then finding employment once they're in the labor force.”
He said that shows that the Arizona economy is able to absorb all those people who want jobs, whether they just moved here or are so-called "discouraged'' workers who until now had not been looking.