Maricopa’s 13.9 percent unemployment rate highest ever

Numbers released by the Arizona Department of Economic Security show that the unemployment rate in Maricopa increased by .8 percentage points from June to July.

The department releases numbers near the end of each month detailing the unemployment figures from the prior month.

These numbers are determined by looking at the number of people who are collecting or have filed for unemployment in a certain community, as well as the total work force available in that community.

From June to July the size of Maricopa’s labor force increased from 19,302 to 19,376 people, but the number of individuals collecting or filing for unemployment increased from 2,523 to 2,690.

Those numbers led to an unemployment rate of 13.9 percent for Maricopa, the highest rate ever in the community’s six-year history. Pinal County had a July unemployment rate of 12.5 percent, and the state as a whole had an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent.

For the year, the city has an average unemployment rate of 11.8 percent compared to the county rate of 10.6 percent and the state rate of 8 percent.

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