In the News: Third Quarter 2023

This post contains items we have found in Arizona news web sites and economic development releases where there are job figures recorded. It also includes items from the Arizona Job Connection Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification Act (WARN) search. 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.

Ashley Furniture is planning a manufacturing and distribution center in Avondale that will employ 500, including 200 call center employees. Manufacturer Rehrig Pacific broke ground on a facility in Buckeye that will be open by April 2024 and employ 100-125. Bechtel Corp opened an office in Chandler this April. The construction and engineering firm currently has 12 employees and room for 50. Amazon opened a distribution center in Mesa this summer that will employ 800-900 in the short term and could employ up to 1,300 at full capacity. Sterile Processing Express, a Michigan-based company that sterilizes surgical instruments for hospitals and surgery centers, opened a facility in Phoenix that employs 18. The utility firm Hawthorne Renewables opened its headquarters in Phoenix this June with five people and the expectation of having about 20 staff by next year. Construction firm Gray opened an office in Phoenix with 25 employees as it eyes supporting the growth of manufacturing in the area. Semiconductor component maker Highlight Tech Corp. is opening a new headquarters in Tempe and will hire 50 by the first quarter 2024 and adding 10 more by mid-year. Raytheon will open a new engineering design facility at SkySong in Scottsdale. It will employ about 150, the majority of which will be new hires to the company. Restaurant Mochilero Kitchen opened in Scottsdale the later part of May with 60 staff. Marketing and media firm The Officer Tatum opened an office and warehouse in Scottdale this spring with plans to hire 50. Monogram Health opened an operations hub in Tempe this spring with 50 initial employees, which quickly grew to 100.

The aircraft parts firm Unical Aviation is moving its corporate headquarters from California to Glendale, bringing about 80 new jobs to the area. The company considered several states before deciding on Arizona. Recycling and waste management firm Republic Services Inc. is expanding its corporate headquarters which will create 600 new jobs over a 15-year period in Phoenix. Scottsdale-based Foresight Technology, a supplier of machined parts for the semiconductor and aerospace industries, is building a facility in Tempe that will be operational by the third quarter and increase employment by 250. Chick-fil-A announced plans for six new locations in the Phoenix metropolitan area, which would provide 520 jobs.

Several logistics corporations announced the opening of facilities or expansions of current locations in the Phoenix area this quarter. Scottsdale-based MyCarrier, which created a freight shipping management software for businesses, plans to increase its workforce of 90 by 30% over the next year. Global packaging and logistics company TransPak signed a seven-year lease on a facility in Glendale with plans to hire 30-35. RK Logistics opened a sales office in Scottsdale and is looking for a warehouse in Phoenix as it expects to be operational here by the end of the fourth quarter and have up to 200 employees when it opens the warehouse. Logistics firm BHS Kinetic opened an office in Scottsdale that will have between 30-50 employees. Transportation and logistics firm Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) is building an office in Tempe with plans for 170 employees, most hired locally. Freight brokerage business Arrive Logistics leased office space in Tempe this year with 30 employees and plans to have twice that by the end of the year.

Nikola is laying off 230 workers between the Phoenix headquarters and its Coolidge manufacturing facility. Credit repair business Progrexion Teleservices, Inc. filed a WARN notice at the end of April, indicating that 203 Phoenix employees were let go. Solar energy provider Sunrun Inc. restructured its operations and laid off workers in several locations around the Valley, with WARN notices tallying 80 laid off in Mesa and 276 laid off between four Phoenix locations. Levy Premium Foodservice laid off 335 employees in Phoenix this summer. BMO Harris Bank let 81 Tempe employees go based on WARN notices.

There were more losses than gains reported in the Tucson area this quarter, with only one report of added jobs as of the cutoff point for this report. Imperial Brown, which makes walk-in coolers and freezers, is building a fourth plant in Tucson that will employ 65.

Owners of the Arizona Daily Star, Lee/Gannett, laid off 10 newsroom staff and nine business-side staff in April. TuSimple laid off more Tucson workers in the second quarter with a WARN notice listing 108 layoffs here. The company let go of employees in Tucson, California and Texas. Fast food chain eegee’s LLC Commisary Dept in Tucson laid off 44. 

Chemical Strategies, which supplies chemicals for the semiconductor, aerospace and defense industries, is developing a warehouse in Casa Grande that will be operational by mid-2024 though no word on the exact number of jobs. The Flower Mine in San Manuel employs about 75 people to grow cannabis to supply Phoenix dispensary chain The Flower Shop. The 100,000 square foot facility was once part of the San Manuel Copper Mine. Rose Acre Farms in La Paz County broke ground on a new egg production farm named Desert Valley Egg Farm that will be completed by 2026 and create 150 jobs.

The Flagstaff Tuesday Morning reported laying off 13 after the retailer closed all of its stores nationwide this spring. WARN notices in July indicated that Owens Corning let go of 63 Eloy employees. The Kingman Club for YOUth ceased operations in April, leaving 12 people out of work and over 100 kids without an afternoon school program. The Yuma YMCA closed its doors in August, leaving 29 people without work.