ALABAMA: The Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce economy continues to grow, and more economic development initiatives are underway to ensure the city’s economic growth. According to the city of Tucson’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, published September 2014, the main strength of the city continues to be the workforce and population.
The strategy outlines three key factors that make the Tucson workforce strong: the relatively young population, diverse and largely bilingual workers and the expanded growth of the population.The Eller College of Management’s Mid-Year Economic Update: Breakfast with the Economists, held in June, concluded that Tucson is growing and should continue growing in the future.
The economists suggest that the current low prices of gasoline coupled with the potential rise in home prices could lead to more growth in both the Tucson and Arizona economies respectively.According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, data from July 2015 showed that the unemployment rate in Tucson has stayed consistent, hovering around 6 percent for the past 12 months.
In both March and May, unemployment was below 5 percent, but strong fluctuations have kept the rate near 6 percent for the majority of this time period.Tucson has developed a primary jobs incentive program, Squire said, to create more jobs specifically in the medical, mining and business fields. Squire said the city is aiming to create more primary jobs that have a minimum salary ranging between $50,000 and $60,000.
