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AZ's employment statistics for July have been released by the Department of Labor. For the month, Arizona's unemployment rate went up to 8.3%. This is the first monthly increase for the state for the year and breaks the recent trend of 8.2% from the 3 previous months (Mar-Jun). When compared one month ago there are roughly 2,600 more unemployed workers in Arizona. There are also almost 12,000 fewer employed people and just over 9,000 fewer people in AZ's total civilian workforce. When taken together, these numbers resulted in the small 0.1% increase for the month. AZ's unemployment rate continues to match the U.S. average rate of 8.3%.

Looking back a year to 2011 we see that AZ's unemployment rate is still much better than the July 2011 rate of 9.6%. This significant improvement in the rate is evident when look at the detailed employment numbers from the Department of Labor. From these statistics we see that there are about 41,000 fewer unemployed workers in Arizona from July 2011 to July 2012. Additionally, there are roughly 22,000 more individuals employed in Arizona and a decrease of 19,000 in Arizona's civilian workforce. Taken together these statistics resulted in the significant drop in the Arizona unemployment rate.

We can also review the industry employment statistics for Arizona for July 2012. We find that for July 2012 many of Arizona's business sectors did experience employment gains from June to July 2012. Some of these industries included Trade Transportation and Utilities, Information, Construction, Manufacturing, and Financial Activities. A few business sectors that saw employment decreases for July were Professional and Business Services and a major in Government.

A more detailed review of the data can be done by using the employment numbers for several of the larger metropolitan areas in Arizona. However, unlike the business sector numbers many of the AZ metropolitan areas saw increases in their unemployment rates for July. The City of Tucson went from 7.6% to 7.7%. The City of Flagstaff rose from 8.3% in June to to 8.7% in July. The Lake Havasu City-Kingman Area rose from 9.6% to 9.7% for the month. The Phoenix Area was on the rise in July from 7.4% to 7.5%. The City of Prescott's rate remained unchanged for July at 8.8%. The City of Yuma's unemployment rate exceeded 30% for the first time in nearly a year (August 2011). Yuma's July 2012 rate was recorded at 31.2% - the highest in Arizona and also one of the highest recorded in the United States.

Our last comparison for AZ for July will be to other neighboring states in the Southwest U.S. In this region there's a wide range of unemployment rates for July. States with higher unemployment rates than Arizona are California (10.7%) and Nevada (12.0%). Southwestern states that have lower rates are New Mexico (6.6%) and Utah (6.0%).

Later this Summer we'll review the August 2012 employment numbers for AZ. Remember that previously released employment numbers can be adjusted at a later date.