Unemployment in the city of Phoenix, August 2026


4.7% of the city of Phoenix’s labor force was unemployed in August 2026, against 4.3% a year earlier. Across the whole metro area the rate was 4.9% in August 2026. The city’s highest rate in this record was 12.9%, in April 2020.
The city had 900,702 people in its labor force — working or looking for work, against 926,911 a year earlier.
Neither figure is seasonally adjusted — BLS publishes city estimates no other way — so compare a month with the same month a year earlier. The city figures are modelled by BLS from the metro and county estimates and revised each March.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Phoenix city and the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler metro area. Auto-generated each build.