Arizona appears to be on the verge of having as many people working as there were before the economy tanked last year due to Covid.

Arizonans are going to have to start looking for work again later this month if they want to keep their unemployment benefits.

The state's jobless rate shrank by close to 45% last month. But a good portion of the drop in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from 10.7% in July to 5.9% in August has nothing to do with a bunch of Arizonans suddenly finding work. It's because some gave up.

Arizona’s jobless rate spiked last month to 12.6%, a figure that may be a record. And it’s certain to go higher as the figures reflect the number of people out looking for work in the second week of April. Since ...

Overall, Arizona added 28,100 private sector jobs last month. That was enough to drop the state's seasonally adjusted jobless rate for November two-tenths of a point from October, to 4.3 percent.

Arizona’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate dropped to 4.7 percent last month, the lowest rate in nearly a decade. The decline of three tenths of a point came as private sector employers said they added 10,300 new workers between August and September.