Arizona's unemployment rate remained flat at 9.6 percent in July. The Arizona Department of Commerce released the seasonally adjusted rate for total non-farm employment on Thursday.

Two hours after Tim Kieff was laid off, he called Jim Clayton. As career management director for the W.P. Carey School of Business MBA program, Clayton works to find jobs for new graduates. Clayton credits the program for placing 92 percent of the 2008 master of business administration class, within three months of graduation.

Arizona's unemployment rate remained fairly steady in August, dipping slightly to 9.1 percent as back-to-school jobs offset losses in retail and leisure and hospitality, the state Department of Commerce announced Sept. 17.

Arizona's budget calamity cost at least 1,450 state workers their jobs last fiscal year, but the shedding of public employees is minor compared to losses endured by the private sector in Arizona. An analysis conducted by the Arizona Capitol Times shows the state trimmed roughly 4 percent of its full-time staff from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009. The state now employs 33,236 full-time workers.