3 economic trends for 2023

New jobs, cooling inflation, stabilizing housing purchase and rental prices

Story by CRAIG GUILLOT

The Grand Canyon state continues to rebound from inflation and shows significant economic growth. Several Arizona cities lead the nation as the fastest-growing, while Arizona’s health care, manufacturing and science industries rank among the top in the country for job quality and gains, says Dennis Hoffman, director of the L. William Seidman Research Institute at the W. P. Carey School of Business and director of ASU’s Office of the University Economist.

With that in mind, here are three trends to watch in 2023.

More jobs

Over the years, Arizona built a diverse economy. That’s still true, and today’s state unemployment rates hit near 40-year lows in 2022 with job growth of 3.8%.

What’s next? More new jobs from nearshoring, tech manufacturing and the semiconductor industry, Hoffman says.

“We are winning many battles on the business relocation front,” he says. “Manufacturing facilities are expanding, not just the high-tech ones but many in the automotive supply chain related to electric vehicles.”

The Phoenix metro area saw the highest inflation rates in the nation between October 2021 and October 2022, Hoffman says — and Arizonans felt it.