The state’s unemployment rate is at a historically low level.

But Arizona residents won’t get their benefits cut, at least this year, if they lose their jobs through no fault of their own.

The seasonally adjusted interest rate stood at 3.4% in June, according to a new report released Thursday by the Office of Economic Opportunity. No lower figure has been registered in the state since the current statistical calculation method was introduced in the 1970s.

The report comes days after the state legislature narrowly rejected Senator Steve Kaiser (Phoenix)’s proposal to drastically shorten the length of time laid-off Arizonas can receive unemployment benefits. .

Kaiser said the current scheme, which provides up to 26 weeks of benefits to those who have been laid off or furloughed without litigation, is depriving the unemployed of any incentive to go out and look for new jobs. claim.

He sought approval from the state Senate for a graduated scale that would base eligibility periods on statewide unemployment rates. And at current levels, his SB 1167 would be out of benefits in just 12 weeks.

But two Republicans in the House, along with Democrats who opposed the bill, rejected the 31 votes needed to approve Kaiser.

One of them, Globe Theater Rep. David Cook, told the Capitol Media Service on Thursday that a major flaw in what Kaiser is pushing is that the duration of the benefits is based on the statewide unemployment rate. he said. The way Arizonas live and work has a lot to do with the economic situation in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

“If I lost my job in Chandler, I could drive to Queen Creek,” he said.

“If I lose my job in Mesa, I might go to Tempe,” Cook continued. “Tempe, maybe we can go to Phoenix. Or if it’s Phoenix, we can go to Mesa.”

That doesn’t apply to rural residents, Cook said. And even now, despite generally low unemployment rates both statewide and nationally, things are different across Arizona.
In Maricopa County, for example, the unemployment rate has been below 3% in four of the last five months.

In Pima County, by contrast, the proportion of people listed as unemployed, meaning those actively looking for work, has risen by about half a percentage point.

And in Gila County, where Cook lives, the latest unemployment rate was 4.1%.

it is still low. However, it has also been historically proven to be highly unstable.

Even ignoring what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gila County’s unemployment rate reached 14.1% in January 2010. Ten years ago it was 9.3%.

Much of this is because the employment situation in his county, as well as in several other Arizona counties, is closely tied to copper, both mining and smelting.

“And when mining cuts jobs, it takes a long time to recover,” Cook said.

He said Kaiser’s bill simply doesn’t take into account the lack of jobs nearby that people can wait to go back to work.

More troubling is what happens when laid-off workers face benefits cuts and decide to pack up and move elsewhere, Cook said.

“When mining companies lose experienced workers, they spend thousands of dollars training new people with no mining experience,” he said.

We have others, too.

Cook said these unemployment benefits are not paid out of state taxes. Rather, it’s really a form of insurance, he said.

Payments will come from a special fund funded by employer-paid levies on the first $8,000 of each worker’s salary.

The actual tax rate is based on how often a company’s employees are ultimately found to be eligible for benefits. This rate ranges from as low as 0.07% for companies with low utilization to as high as 18.78% for companies with a high number of employees fired or laid off without cause.

Thursday’s new statewide report shows that employment conditions are generally good, especially for workers. It’s not just record low unemployment.

According to the latest figures, Arizona’s “vacancy rate” was 5.9%. This reflects the number of unfilled positions.

And Doug Walls, director of labor market information for the state government agency, said the numbers were higher than pre-pandemic levels.

In contrast, the employment rate, or the rate at which employers were able to fill jobs, was only 4.4%.

“This is a sign that employers are still short-staffed and looking for workers,” Walls said.

All of this has forced Arizona companies to pay more to fill the slots.

Wages in the state rose 5.6% over the past year, compared with just 3.6% elsewhere in the country. Still, Arizona’s average hourly wage is $31.61, compared to $33.37 nationally.

But not all areas of the Arizona economy are growing.

Warehousing and transportation were the hardest hit.

“This was an industry that benefited from the impact of the pandemic,” Walls explained.

“Consumers have turned to purchasing products.”

More importantly, he said many of those purchases were made online.

“Even in traditional retail, face-to-face sales were closed,” Walls explained. And we were left with companies that could store and deliver the ordered goods.

These companies don’t need that many workers now, he said. But Walls said the industry still employs more people than it did pre-coronavirus.

Various factors are affecting other economic sectors that cut jobs last month. And at least some of it is tied to both inflation and the Federal Reserve’s efforts to keep inflation in check with a series of rate hikes.

So, for example, 3,800 jobs were cut in the state’s financial activities sector between April and May. And half of that came from credit unions, mortgages and other loan brokers, and commercial banks, as rising borrowing costs mean fewer eligible applicants.

There is also a closely related construction sector, which lost 1,300 jobs last month. By contrast, around 1,000 jobs are usually added between April and May.

And much of it is related to housing demand, which is affected by mortgage costs.

Walls noted that from 2010 to mid-2022, the number of permits for new homes grew steadily and fairly consistently, before plummeting by nearly two-thirds earlier this year. Walls said that although there has been some recovery, permits are still down 17% from the same period last year.

Still, there are some signs of optimism, he said. Walls said one of the biggest factors was the Fed’s decision on Wednesday to halt further rate hikes, at least for now.

This “should be a positive indicator for anyone considering buying a home,” he said.

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