It’s no surprise that Phoenix is on an upswing with job growth, more out-of-state companies are expanding here and startups are percolating from the local universities and incubators. In a research report released today by CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. (EMSI) it revealed that Phoenix was among the “Top 10 cities with the highest gains in U.S. Jobs.” The top 50 metro cities were evaluated on actual total job growth against the national employment trend for the U.S. of 4 percent across various industries from 2010 to 2013.
Among the cities recognized, Phoenix was listed as number six after Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin. The report lists the number of jobs expected for Phoenix from 2010 to 2013 as 70,263. Fortunately, companies grew and added 124,501 jobs, a 54,238 increase, resulting in total employment in Phoenix for 2013 at 1,956,524-a 2.8 percent increase from national average, CareerBuilder noted.
“The metros producing the strongest competitive effect are often heavily dominated by specialized technical industries,” said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder and co-author of The Talent Equation. “The overall job growth in these markets is not primarily a product of national economic trends, but rather distinct factors in the local economy. Thirty-two of the top 50 metros have outperformed national employment growth post-recession which, in turn, can have a positive influence on other geographies.”
The report showed that Phoenix’s main drivers of job growth came from the educational sector, commercial banking, professional employer organizations and semiconductor manufacturing.
While hardware was just one element of this report, let’s not forget the software and startups that are contributing to the equation. USA Today noted Arizona to have one of the fastest job growths in the US and crediting the tech sector. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics had Arizona listed as the third largest state for job growth in 2013. What else…our large tech companies such as GoDaddy, Infusionsoft, Cox, State Farm and GM are expanding and adding IT jobs like crazy, and let’s not forget the influx of Silicon Valley companies expanding to the Valley such as Reputation.com, Prosper.com, Gigya and Weebly. Job growth? Yeah we got that…
Read more about startups booming in Silicon Desert from USA Today with tech correspondent Jefferson Graham and our coverage in print.
Read more about Arizona’s economic growth at AZTB.
Read the CareerBuilder report here.
