Economist says Arizona has recovered 60% of jobs lost during pandemic

PHOENIX – Valley economist Jim Rounds said Arizona has recovered more than half of the jobs lost during the coronavirus pandemic while he puts the national number at half.

Arizona has gotten back about 60%, while country is at about 50%, Rounds said.

“When you look at our job growth or the extent that we’re not losing jobs, we’re in the top three nationally,” he said. “We’re doing relatively well and you have to say relatively, because this is a very unique economic recession.”

Rounds is keeping a close eye on the spiking coronavirus numbers, which he said could push full job recovery into 2022. For the past few months, he had projected it would happen next year.

He added once the dust from the election settles, Congress needs to hammer out another stimulus package.

“There’s lot of debate over the next stimulus package which I personally believe we need,” Rounds said.

“We very much have a downturn that is affecting lower income individuals far, far more than people in the upper middle class with reasonable household incomes. I’m hopeful that Democrats and Republicans can come together on a stimulus package after the election,” he said.

Arizona’s tourism industry has been decimated during the pandemic. Thousands are still out of work and billions of dollars have been lost.

Tourism is a $25 billion a year industry in Arizona. Visitors spent $8.5 billion in the first eight months of 2020, which was down about 51% compared to the same period in 2019, according to a recent report from the Arizona Office of Tourism.

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