Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services//November 9, 2023//
Arizona is expected to add jobs over the next decade at nearly five times the rate of the rest of the nation — much of that to help care for the state’s growing population of seniors.
And Maricopa County is projected by the state Office of Economic Opportunity to get more than what might be considered its fair share.
New figures Thursday show the state will add 477,968 jobs by 2032. That’s an annualized rate of 1.4%.
By contrast, the national figure for that period is just 0.3%.
What will be driving a lot of that is the need for more workers in health care.
“Health care and social assistance has been one of the strongest, most consistent industries in terms of employment growth over the last several decades,” said Doug Walls, the agency’s labor market information director. “And that’s only likely to continue.”
It comes down, he said, to demographics.
