In the News: First Quarter 2023
Announcements of job loss have ticked up
This section contains items we have found in Arizona news web sites and economic development releases where there are job figures recorded. While this list is not a complete description of activity during the last quarter, it does provide insight into current developments that affect Arizona’s employment base. Detailed information on individual announcements is available on the Reports and Presentations page (scroll to the bottom of the page). Graphs summarizing overall trends for Arizona, Phoenix, and Tucson are below.
Frontier Airlines opened is new crew base at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in December, which is expected to employ 180 pilots and 275 flight attendants in the first year. The airline had earlier announced several new direct flights from Phoenix. JA Solar leased space for its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Phoenix that will employ about 600 and be operational by the fourth quarter of this year. German glass manufacturer Schott AG has set up a facility in Phoenix to manufacture rapid diagnostic devices and will hire about 150 over the next few years. Zenith Financial Holding Co. filed a charter application with the FDIC this summer for a new bank. Zenith Private Bank & Trust will be located in Scottsdale and employ 20. Scottsdale is the location of Houston-based restaurant concept Federal American Grill that opened in January with 60 employees. Caesars Republic Scottsdale hotel is on track to open in February 2024 with 200 employees. System Pavers opened an office and showroom in Tempe at the beginning of the year and plans to have 100 employees. The company designs and installs outdoor spaces. Window and door manufacturer Andersen Corp. was delayed in opening its Goodyear facility because of the pandemic, but it is open now with 500 employees, about a hundred more than originally stated back in 2018Q1 report.
San Francisco-based financial tech company Brightside plans to add 100 employees in Chandler this year. Gummi World held a grand opening for its new dietary supplement manufacturing facility in Chandler last December which is expected to employ hundreds. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) announced plans for a second factory that will be operational in 2026 and bring the total direct TSMC jobs here to 4,500. Education technology firm Schola Inc. raised $10 million Series A investment funding in December which will allow it to hire 35 engineers in 2023, growing its workforce from 65 to 100. Fast food chain Raising Cane’s plans six new restaurants in the Phoenix area this year with new locations in Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, Phoenix, and Goodyear totaling 750 new jobs for the combined locations.
Mortgage lender Homepoint laid off 113 employees in Chandler earlier in the fall and filed an additional WARN notice in November for 18 more employees. Several online real estate businesses have shed jobs in Arizona recently though there are no firm numbers on how many workers. Chandler-based Offerpad Solutions cut 7% of its staff in September and Opendoor had company-wide layoffs including Arizona workers. Freshly let go of 329 workers at its Phoenix warehouse at the end of the year as it is halting direct-to-consumer meal deliveries. WARN listings indicate that ttec laid off 196 in Phoenix. North American Savings Bank filed a WARN notice regarding 10 employees laid off in Maricopa County. Carvana announced in November that it was laying off 1,500 and that most cuts would be centered in its corporate, technology, and operations units. Since the company is based in Tempe, most of the losses would be felt here though no local count of jobs lost was reported. Carvana also quietly sold off land in Surprise that was meant to become an inspection and reconditioning center that would employ 500-800.
American Furniture Warehouse is opening a location in Marana that will employ between 150-175. Tucson was selected for American Battery Factory’s first battery cell gigafactory in the U.S. The first phase will add 300 jobs and then scale up to about 1,000 positions. Advanced Financial Company announced in November that it was adding 152 jobs in Tucson over the next five years. Battery maker Scion Power Corporation, which already has 100 employees in Tucson, will expand its existing manufacturing operations and add 150 more jobs by 2026. Dimensional Energy opened a technology center in Tucson this last fall with 23 employees and plans to add 10-15 more. The company produces sustainable aviation fuel for test flights and is aiming for commercial production by 2025.
The Cardenas Markets in Tucson closed, leaving 63 people out of work. Brinks Home filed a WARN notice at the beginning of the year indicating 81 layoffs in Pima County. There was a WARN notice for TuSimple in Tucson at the end of 2022 for 135 layoffs. There were no local media reports about this, though a San Diego newspaper reported that the headquarters there as well as locations in Arizona, Texas, Europe and China experienced a 25% reduction in workforce.
KPCT Advanced Chemicals, which is a joint venture of Kanto Group of Taiwan and U.S.-based Chemtrade Logistics, plans to build an electronic grade sulfuric acid manufacturing plant in Casa Grande that will employ 65. Procter & Gamble (P&G) is building a facility in Coolidge to manufacture laundry detergent and fabric softeners. It should be operational by 2025 and employ about 500. Nikola Corp. acquired battery maker Romeo Power Inc. last summer and is moving the operations from Cyress, CA to Coolidge. No word on number of jobs in local media, but other reports put the employment for Romeo at 400.
FrameTec is building a facility in Camp Verde to manufacture roof and floor trusses as well as wall panels. It will be operational by spring 2024 and create 180 jobs. Refrigerated storage company Interstate Warehousing is building a freezer facility in Kingman that is expected to be operational by the fourth quarter and will employ 70. NextGen Cryogenic Solutions, Inc. broke ground last fall on a new Cryogenic Engineering Test Center just west of Kingman. The facility should be done by the second quarter and employ 100.