Pinal County unemployment up, fewer jobs available

The unemployment rate in Pinal County jumped .4 of a percent and remains above both the national rate of 6.1 percent and the state rate of 5.6 percent.

The county has seen the unemployment numbers increase now for five consecutive months, going from 4.8 percent in April and ballooning to 7.3 percent at present.

While the percentage of people unemployed in the county has continued to grow, the number of jobs has continued to dwindle.

In April there were a total of 86,100 jobs available in the county. Today that number sits at 83,625.

Since April the sectors that experienced the largest cutbacks in jobs were local and state governments, losing 1,300 positions, and leisure and hospitality, which lost 225 jobs.

The only areas of growth were federal government jobs, which added 25 positions and business service positions, also with 25 new positions.

All other sectors of employment either had no growth or lost positions.

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