Arizona State Jobs Expect Billions from ARRA
Is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act doing its part to create Arizona state jobs and other positions throughout the state? The answer to that question depends on who you ask.
As of the end of September, a total of $139 million in contracts had helped to create or save about 657 jobs in Arizona. While that may seem like a large number, naysayers think it is only a small number compared to the total number of jobs the stimulus is expected to create throughout the state.
Overall, Arizona is expected to receive about $14.6 billion in federal stimulus money, but so far the state has only seen about 1 percent of that.
Jobs in Phoenix Arizona Increase
Even though the area's unemployment rate stayed steady, more jobs in Phoenix Arizona were added last month.
During September, the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area saw its unemployment rate stay steady at 8.6 percent, unchanged from August and a slight decrease from the area's 8.7 percent unemployment rate during July. The current rate also is lower than the national unemployment rate of 9.8 percent.
The area had a total non-farm employment of 1,708,800 workers during September, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is up from 1,700,500 workers during August, but an 8 percent decrease from last year.
Arizona Jobs through Solar on Schools Program
A new effort to make schools more green through a round of funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also will help create more Arizona jobs. Go to http://arizona.jobing.com to learn more about Arizona jobs.
Gov. Jan Brewer recently announced that 15 school districts throughout the state will receive federal stimulus funding for solar energy projects through the Solar on Schools initiative. The funding is part of the $55,447,000 awarded to the Arizona Department of Commerce Energy Office through the State Energy Program.
The grants, which will provide more than $5 million to procure photovoltaic systems for qualifying school districts, will be managed by the School Facilities Board. The current round of funding includes $2.6 million.