WHENCE ARIZONA'S ECONOMY?

posted to AZ Week Notebook by Michael Chihak

Both state and federal unemployment numbers come out this week -- state numbers for January on Thursday and federal numbers for February on Friday.

The national trend has been steady improvement, while Arizona's improving trend took a break in December, when the jobless figure stayed flat with November at 8.7 percent.

For Friday's Arizona Week program, we will look closely at the state numbers. On the program will be:

• Aruna Murthy the state economist who oversees assembly of the report and will reveal the results at a Thursday news conference. Following it, we will interview her.

• Jim Rounds, senior vice president and economist with Elliott D. Pollack and Co. of Scottsdale. He does economic analysis work for the new Arizona Commerce Authority and has advised it on the direction it should take in trying to grow quality jobs in Arizona.

Watch for their interviews and journalistic expert analysis Friday online and at 8:30 p.m. MST on PBS-HD6.

COUNTY BY COUNTY, JOB PICTURE IMPROVES

posted to AZ Week Notebook by Amer Taleb

The monthly rise and fall of unemployment in Arizona’s two biggest counties was almost identical in 2011.

With about 2 million people in its labor force, Maricopa County’s unemployment rate dropped from 9.1 percent in January 2011 to 7.7 by the end of the year. Pima County’s rate fell from 9.2 to 7.9 percent. Nearly 500,000 people work in Pima County, according to the Arizona Department of Administration.

Unemployment in all 15 counties dropped by at least half a percentage point, except in Yuma. Yuma County, which relies heavily on agriculture and seasonal workers, started and ended the year at 23.1 percent unemployment. In July, unemployment in its workforce of 99,000 topped 30 percent.

Graham County’s 2.5 percentage points decrease was the largest last year.

As a whole, Arizona’s unemployment rate fell from 9.6 percent to 8.7 percent, according to the ADA. Over the last decade, the lowest rate Arizona experienced was in 2007, when unemployment was under 4 percent.

Shortly after, the market crashed and two years later, it was above 10 percent.

PHOTO RADAR MAYBE STAYING MAYBE GOING

posted to Political Buzz by Christopher Conover

State Sen. Frank Antenori (R-Vail) is no fan of photo radar or red light cameras. So he proposed SCR 1029 on the ballot which would have asked voters to decide whether or not to make the cameras illegal statewide.

But when the proposal got to the Senate floor it ran into opposition. In fact, the Senate voted the bill down 13-15 seemingly keeping photo radar around.

The proposal did not die in legislative terms though. Even though Sen. Antenori is a sponsor of the proposal, he voted against it. That allowed him through parliamentary moves to revive the bill for another vote on the Senate floor. So far that vote has not been scheduled. That means Antenori, who is the Majority Whip, now must set about changing minds before the proposal comes up again.

LOOKING CLOSER AT UNEMPLOYMENT

posted to AZ Week Notebook by Amer Taleb

In general, Arizona’s unemployment rate has trended downward over the last few years, falling nearly 2 percentage points.

Unemployment was above 10 percent in December 2009. The Office of Employment and Population Statistics’ newest numbers – from December 2011 – says it's dropped to 8.7 percent.

The first set of employment data for 2012 will be released March 8th at a press conference with Aruna Murthy, director of economic analysis for the Arizona Department of Administration.

Putting the freshest digits into perspective, here’s some key points from the December 2011 report:

• 5 of 11 major sectors saw job growth, with Professional and Business Services leading the way with 4,000 jobs. • A combination of below average job gains in the private sector and above average losses in the government resulted in a net loss in Total Nonfarm employment. • Uncharacteristically, Educational and Health Services lost 1,200 jobs.

Over the course of the year, nonfarm employment gained nearly 40,000 jobs and 10 of 11 major sectors experienced job growth. The Arizona Department of Administration projects moderate employment gains in 2012.

PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY RESULTS VARY BY COUNTY

posted to Political Buzz by Andrea Kelly

Arizona's presidential preference election is over, and we know Mitt Romney won the entire state with a 20-point lead over Rick Santorum.

But the results vary county to county.

In Pima County, Romney's lead was 14 points, he had 44 percent of the vote to Santorum's 30 percent. In Maricopa, Romney widened his lead to 25 points, with 49 to 24 percent of the voters.

Two more rural counties favored Santorum a bit more. Republican voters in Yuma and Cochise counties gave Romney just a five-point lead against Santorum.

Ron Paul got about 8 percent in each of the counties mentioned above, and Newt Gingrich won about 16 percent of the vote in those counties, except for his 20 percent showing in Yuma County.

PERSONNEL REFORM: IT'S HE SAID, SHE SAID

posted to AZ Week Notebook by Michael Chihak

He said:

“You really need a wholesale and comprehensive reform of the system to eliminate those presumptions that are so easily manipulated by creative lawyering.”

She said:

“The system is not broken. We agree that there are some personnel rules that can be modified and improved upon, but the bill that we’re looking at and discussing today, HB2571, is overreaching. We feel it’s dangerous, and it’s reckless.”

He is Nick Dranias, a lawyer and head of the Center for Constitutional Government at the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix.

She is Sheri Van Horsen, president of Local 3111 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, also in Phoenix.

Both made the remarks in interview for Friday's Arizona Week broadcast on the issue of state personnel reform.

The legislation, HB2571, is one of Gov. Jan Brewer's "four cornerstones of reform" and thus, is getting lots of attention at the state Capitol.

It would toss out the current civil service system and replace it with an "at-will" system similar to the private sector. That would give state department heads the ability to hire, discipline and fire employees at their wills.

Currently, the civil service system provides appeal and due process avenues, including a ivil service review board that can approve, reject or modify disciplinary procedures, including firings, against state employees.

Watch Arizona Week at 8:30 p.m. on PBS-HD6 for an in-depth report.