PHOENIX, Ariz.
— Phoenix to hire more than 600 more workers over the next two years in order to boost its workforce in a bid to keep pace with a projected labor shortage in the U.S. article Phoenix will hire more people than it has in five years in 2018, a sign that the Phoenix-Mesa metro area is inching closer to a labor shortage and a sharp rise in the cost of living.
The Phoenix Economic Development Corporation (PDEC) announced Tuesday that it will hire 800 new workers this year in a move to maintain Phoenix’s labor force in 2018.
This will allow the metro area to hire 600 more people by 2019, the last year for which figures are available.
PDEC will hire nearly 700 workers in 2019 and another 200 in 2020, but it is not yet clear how many of them will be hired full-time, said Kristin Jankovic, Phoenix’s executive director of employment and economic development.
“It’s a lot of work, and we’re still not sure what’s going to happen in the next couple of years,” she said.
Despite the high demand for workers, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton said the city is unlikely to experience an economic crisis unless the workforce is depleted.
Phoenix has been hit hard by the downturn in the housing market and has struggled to find enough skilled workers to fill the jobs.
It’s not clear if the city will need to hire workers from other states or other parts of the country in order maintain its workforce.
A labor shortage is a problem for cities and states that rely on workers from abroad.
In a report last month, the American Association of University Women called on the federal government to help pay for workers from countries with low labor costs, like China, India and the Philippines.
But it’s unclear if Phoenix’s city government will be able to provide workers from overseas.
Pueblo County, Colorado, has about 10,000 workers, and the area is facing a labor force shortage.
Other states are also facing labor shortages, with cities like Philadelphia and Atlanta seeing a rise in workers.
While the Phoenix metro area’s labor shortage has not been confirmed, some analysts have been predicting the job losses could occur as early as 2020.
Last year, the Phoenix Economic Growth Council estimated that Phoenix would need about 1.3 million new workers to meet its workforce needs by 2020.
