By Mike Sunnucks | Rose Law Group Reporter
The Phoenix metro area ended 2021 with a 2.4% unemployment rate.
That compares to a 2.8% jobless rate statewide, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Government unemployment figures have also shown improvements from the end of 2020 when a COVID pandemic wave was hitting after the presidential election.
Phoenix had a 6.4% jobless rate at the end of 2021, according to BLS.
The Arizona unemployment rate at the end 2020 was 6.7%.
The Tucson metropolitan area had a 2.8% unemployment rate to end 2021 versus a 6.9% rate.
The U.S. job market is still recovering from the more than 20 million jobs lost at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Employers across industries are struggling to hire and retain workers after the cuts, economic and education shutdowns and lost pay of the pandemic.
Some workers are reluctant to return to sectors hit by the shutdowns and frontline jobs that might expose them to the virus and its variants.
Still, unemployment data from BLS shows an improving jobless rate across major metropolitan areas.
New York City’s jobless rate went from 8.6% at the end of 2020 to 5.5% at the end of 2021. Los Angeles’s rate went from 11.1% to 5.6%, Miami’s 5.6% to 2.6%, Las Vegas’ 9.6% to 6% and San Francisco’s 6.9% to 3.5%, according to BLS.
