Arizona is projected to add more than 700,000 jobs by 2030 in high-tech manufacturing, healthcare, and other high-growth sectors. That projection should send a jolt through every boardroom, classroom and legislative office in the state. According to ManpowerGroup’s 2025 U.S. Talent Shortage Survey, 71% of employers now report difficulty finding skilled talent, more than double the 32% who said the same a decade ago. Those two realities do not resolve themselves. They demand deliberate, coordinated action and the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) is leading that charge.

That urgency shaped every conversation at the 2026 Arizona Workforce Summit, hosted by the Governor’s Workforce Arizona Council and OEO. Industry leaders, policymakers and educators gathered not simply to discuss Arizona’s talent challenges, but to confront them directly.

Arizona’s private sector did not attend as spectators. Companies helped lead the summit. South32, Amkor Technology Arizona, and Salt River Project sponsored the inaugural Champions for the Workforce Recognition Luncheon, a clear signal that Arizona’s business community views workforce investment as a long-term economic imperative. Chamber of commerce leaders from Chandler, Flagstaff and Southern Arizona shared scalable workforce models that translate employer needs into community-level action. Sessions in healthcare, construction and advanced manufacturing showcased apprenticeship, upskilling and skills-first hiring as proven solutions.

The OEO’s signature programs are already producing results. The BuildItAZ Apprenticeship Initiative has invested nearly $6 million in apprenticeship pathways for the construction trades, while ReadyTechGo delivers advanced manufacturing certifications in as little as two weeks through a network of Arizona community colleges. Skills-first hiring in public-sector and healthcare roles is opening doors for overlooked talent and strengthening pipelines across multiple industries. These programs work because they are supported by OEO’s labor market data, designed in partnership with employers, and measured for outcomes.

Artificial intelligence adds a new layer of urgency to all of this. AI is already reshaping Arizona’s labor market across industries and at every wage level. OEO previewed a data-driven AI exposure risk model that maps how emerging technologies are reshaping occupations, wage trajectories, and growth potential statewide. The findings are clear: the risk is real but unevenly distributed, and Arizona is responding strategically. OEO’s data is already in the hands of workforce training partners, who are using it to redesign enrollment strategies, career navigation tools, and program design. Pima Community College’s employer-aligned “earn and learn” upskilling models demonstrate that education can adapt at the speed of industry when it is anchored in reliable labor market intelligence.

Nowhere is OEO’s work more urgent than in rural healthcare. Healthcare is Arizona’s fastest-growing sector, projected to add 113,000 jobs between 2024 and 2034. Yet, 785,992 Arizonans, representing 11% of the population, live in rural communities where providers are scarce and residents travel an average of 20.5 miles to reach a hospital or primary care provider. Governor Katie Hobbs responded with the Rural Health Transformation Program, backed by nearly $167 million in federal CMS funding. OEO leads the Arizona Healthcare Workforce Project within this initiative, using the Integrated Data System to track worker outcomes from training through long-term rural employment retention. The program’s $47.1 million Workforce Development and Training Program directly targets the structural barriers driving those shortages.

Arizona does not have to wait for the workforce gap to widen before acting. OEO is already connecting data to decisions, programs to people, and partners to outcomes across every corner of the state. The work ahead requires every employer, educator, and policymaker to bring that same commitment. Arizona has the tools. The only question is whether the state will use them with the urgency this moment demands.

Mary Foote is director of the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity.