TUCSON, AZ — Over the years, the economy fluctuates similar to a roller-coaster with ups and downs.
Director of Community Services and Employment and Training with Pima County, Arnold Palacios, says Pima County's economy saw a significant impact during the recession and has continued to recover.
"Coming into about 2012 or so we begin to pull back and you see a steady growth from that time."
Fast forward to Tucson's job growth in the last year. According to the University of Arizona, 7,400 jobs were added to the metro area since 2017. This number beats the US job growth rate by 0.2 percent.
"I think the economy is working well across the nation and here in Tucson we have growth, for example Geico is putting up a brand new building very close to here that will be hiring hundreds of people, Amazon, Home Depot same situation, construction and all the trades is doing very well."
Some of the areas where jobs have seen the most growth across the county: construction, education and healthcare.
Palacios says he believes growth will continue well into 2019 and doesn't expect the economy to slow down until maybe 2020.
