The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce (GPCC) and Cox
Communications held the Economic Outlook 2017 event on October 11 at the
Waldorf-Astoria resort, Arizona Biltmore. Economists Jim Huntzinger, executive
vice president and chief investment officer of BOK Financial, Andrew Walker,
Economics Correspondent of BBC World Service and Elliot Pollack of Elliot D.
Pollack & Co. appeared, all making statements of their assessments of the
local, state, national and international economies.
For the last 8 years, the country has battled through the
recession, seeing the unemployment rate as high as 10 percent! Now, as
unemployment has stabilized around 5 percent, economists are noting this may be
as good as it’s going to get.
One of Pollack’s major points was Arizona economic
development: although there is overall improvement in multiple areas across the
state, it still does not feel as if the economy is getting any better. He noted
that this is because historically, as a state, Arizona has grown accustomed to
extreme growth rates and that even though it may not feel like it, the economy
is still rising slowly, but surely.
“This is as good as
it’s going to get. Normally at this point in the recovery cycle, unemployment
is at about 3.5 percent. Right now, here it’s in the high fives. This is the
boom for this economy,” he said.
Pollack went on to
mention growth can be expected in the hospitality, leisure, health care,
professional business services, education and construction sectors, but his
major concern lies with losing high-wage manufacturing jobs to lower-paying
replacement jobs.
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