In April, Phoenix’s Community and Economic Development Department announced that the unemployment rate had dropped below 3 percent.

The unadjusted unemployment rate in Greater Phoenix dropped to 2.4 percent, down nearly three-quarters of a point from February’s 3.1 percent and half of last year’s 5.4 percent unemployment rate in March.

Robust hiring brought the Phoenix metro workforce to nearly 2.5 million people in March, up 110,800 from March last year.

Hospitality (up 17,600 jobs in year-over-year comparisons) and retail (up 14,400 jobs in March 2022 over March 2021) showed strong gains for the second month in a row, recovering to nearly pre-pandemic levels.

The professional, scientific and technical continued a strong hiring trend, remaining among the top three sectors for the fourth month in a row, adding 11,100 new hires in March over last year. Nearly all of the reported professional, technical and scientific hires were in Greater Phoenix this past year. Healthcare hiring was fourth with 9,100 new hires.

Arizona saw its unemployment rate continue to come in below the U.S. rate, a 3.3 adjusted unemployment rate in Arizona, compared to the national 3.6 rate. Most hiring elsewhere in the state was in the retail, construction, healthcare and government sectors.