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National unemployment numbers for the month of December are in, and they aren’t pretty for Arizona.
The numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics find that Hispanics and construction workers were the hardest hit by the sluggish economy, and in case you hadn’t noticed, Arizona happens to have both a lot of Hispanics and a lot of construction workers.
Or at least, regarding the latter, it used to.
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According to December’s numbers, 22.7 percent of construction workers are unemployed and 12.9 percent of Hispanics looking for a job can’t find one.
Arizona’s overall unemployment rate for the month of November was 8.9 percent, but that number is likely to increase based on the national numbers.
The national numbers for farm workers is also grim, with 19.7 percent of farmers unemployed — another blow to one of Arizona’s big industries.
The overall unemployment number is offset by a 4.6-percent unemployment rate for professional or management jobs.
Moral of the story: Go to college.
