Construction employment is up and expected to grow substantially through 2019 in Arizona, according to a just-issued report by the state’s Office of Economic Opportunity.
Employment in most sectors of the state, but particularly in the construction, health care, and utilities industry, will account for the addition of at least 153,000 new jobs by the end of next year.
Hit particularly hard during the Great Recession, Arizona’s construction industry began to see new life around 2014 and 2015.
But the latest Economic Opportunity Office report indicates that just in the building business alone jobs are now up by more than 12,000 in early 2018 over January of the previous year.
Those construction jobs are being seen in all segments of the industry, from road building to new home and office construction.
The number of building permits in the state has also seen a marked increase from under 1,000 per month in 2010 to more than 3,500 a month now.
Altogether, total employment in just the construction industry alone in Arizona today is just short of the 149,000 mark.
Despite the growing construction job numbers, it is the health care industry in Arizona that is currently the most robust, adding 14,400 new jobs in the last year.
Arizona’s Great Recession job loss was among the most severe in the country. In the summer of 2009 the industry made history, recording a 60 percent decline in jobs.
By Garry Boulard
