Research

Those looking for good news in the jobs data became more optimistic as the second half of 2010 unfolded. Starting in July, payroll employment figures for each month were up compared to the same month in the year before.

"Arizona is stuck in a vicious cycle right now," says Lee McPheters, research professor at the W. P. Carey School of Business and director of the JPMorgan Chase Economic Outlook Center. "Homes come onto the market from foreclosure and that weakens prices.

Read or listen: A report on real estate market conditions in Phoenix shows that foreclosures represented 43 percent of total transactions in February.

Annual employment revisions recently issued by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics brought more bad news for the Arizona economy. Preliminary monthly job growth figures had previously indicated improving labor market conditions as the year ended.

Elinor Ostrom, the 2009 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, told the audience at the Economic Club of Phoenix Luncheon that there's ample evidence to prove that polycentric, or multilevel, approaches — even relatively easy fixes that can be implemented by local communities, busines

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the main challenge facing the U.S. and its trading partners was a return to growth. After these economies improved in 2010, the outlook now for the main trading partners of the U.S.

Listen or read: The state received discouraging words recently about last year's employment numbers and about population growth over the last decade.Retail sales showed a glimmer of hope, however, and unemployment appears to be stabilizing. Economist Dennis Hoffman of the L.

Phil Francis is executive chairman of PetSmart, Inc. — the largest specialty pet retailer of services and solutions for the lifetime needs of pets.

It's been said that, for companies anyway, "culture is everything." Lou Gerstner, to whom this oft-quoted phrase is attributed, is the CEO who pulled IBM from near ruin in the 1990s — in part by transforming the Big Blue culture.

When you compare employment numbers in February 2011 to February 2010, Arizona added 20,000 jobs in certain sectors that posted job growth.