Arizona's jobless rate worst since 1983

The 9.7 percent unemployment figure is just 0.1 percent below what it was in August of 1983. That was at the end of a recession which actually shot the state jobless rate as high as 11.5 percent.

It also compares sharply with the state's 3.6 percent unemployment rate in mid 2007, just before the Arizona economy peaked, the real estate bubble burst and companies began shedding workers.

And the only reason the current rate wasn't worse than 9.7 percent is that the decline of 800 jobs between July and August by private employers was more than offset by a sharp hike in the number of people working for the government. That includes 33,000 in public education.

But Aruna Murthy, director of economic analysis for the state Department of Commerce, said that jump was expected: These are the people in non-teaching jobs: clerks, cafeteria workers, janitors, bus drivers and crossing guards who were technically "unemployed'' over the summer but were expected to be rehired when classes resumed.

That private sector job loss, she said, is surprising. In fact, Murthy said, the number of people working in private industry has increased between July and August every year going back more than a decade.

"Things haven't picked up as we expected,'' Murthy said.