- Tim Gallen
- Reporter- Phoenix Business Journal
- Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Google+
If you said Phoenix you’re wrong.
Scottsdale? Guess again.
Give up?
Sahuarita.
The mining town 15 miles south of Tucson topped the list of best places in Arizona for job seekers by NerdWallet.
With an unemployment rate of 6.9 percent and a healthy 13.1 percent growth in the working-age population between 2009 and 2011, Sahuarita, near Green Valley, has a strong mining employment presence with Freeport-McMoRan and Asarco.
Residents in the southern Arizona town earn a median income of $72,781, according to NerdWallet.
Flagstaff ranked No. 2 followed by El Mirage, a suburb northwest of Phoenix.
With its 11.7 percent growth in working-age population between 2009 and 2011, as well as its low 6.3 percent unemploymen rate, Flagstaff’s presence on the list makes sense to me.
But El Mirage?
No offense intended to the residents in that northwest Valley suburb, but the inclusion of the landlocked 12-square-mile city, whose largest employers are the local school district, Walmart and a garbage company, has me scratching my head.
NerdWallet based its list on cities’ growth of working-age population, household income and unemployment rate.
Apparently, El Mirage fit the bill.
“The town government has embarked on an ambitious plan to build up El Mirage’s economy by revitalizing the downtown area and attracting new businesses,” reads NerdWallet’s blurb about El Mirage.
Last I knew, El Mirage’s downtown was in desperate need of a makeover. Granted, it’s been a while since I’ve cruised through El Mirage’s downtown, so maybe it has seen improvement.
But how much of a job creator such a revitalization effort will be remains to be seen.
The full top 10 list is below. To read more about the list, click here.
- Sahuarita
- Flagstaff
- El Mirage
- Queen Creek
- Surprise
- Goodyear
- Gilbert
- Marana
- Chandler
- Maricopa
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