Guest Opinion//Jaime A. Molera
Arizona Capitol Times
Arizona has a strong track record of attracting new business investment and job creation across a host of economic sectors, including aerospace, bioscience, financial services and technology. Moreover, the state’s commitment to low taxes, reasonable limits on business regulation and an affordable cost of living is also a magnet for investment dollars from another industry – clean energy.
But this will only last if Arizona can maintain the skilled workforce needed to translate investment dollars into actual working businesses jobs, The Western Way, skilled workers
To better understand this trend, The Western Way commissioned an economic analysis on 11 different manufacturing and facility expansion projects in the clean energy sector in various stages of development across the state of Arizona.
While not an exhaustive study the analysis demonstrates that Arizona is already a major destination for clean energy investment. Not only that, but these investments strengthen our economy through job creation and income growth.
During the construction phase, those clean energy investments are expected to create 87,000 jobs in the building industry. With average salaries of around $55,000 per year, those construction jobs will add more than $4.8 billion in labor income to the state economy annually.
During the operations phase, more than 22,000 jobs are expected to be created with average salaries of $60,000 per year – adding more than $1.3 billion in labor income to Arizona’s economy.
