By Ronald J. Hansen | The Republic
Arizona gained only 6,300 net jobs in December, closing 2016 with half the growth seen in 2015 and falling below the nation’s overall pace.
The slowdown in job creation that began in summer deepened as the year ended and added to the caution economists are feeling about the state’s finances as lawmakers prepare the fiscal 2018 budget.
Overall tax collections since the summer have grown less than they did a year earlier and the incoming Trump administration has yet to offer policy details that will help suggest how the economy might change in the months ahead, several economists told state lawmakers during a hearing of the joint Finance Advisory Committee on Thursday.
