Arizona’s health care industry serves as key economic driver
Arizona’s health care industry has proven to be an important business sector across the state, not only for patient care but also for increased economic development, according to leading economists and industry advocates.
Experts say there are a number of reasons for the industry’s durability and success. One major factor is a “competitiveness package” that was adopted by the state Legislature and former Governor Jan Brewer a decade ago.
The 2011 package was designed to encourage business investment and diversify the state’s economy in the state in the wake of the Great Recession.
Arizona small businesses pump $191 billion into annual economy
Small businesses in Arizona, those with 500 or fewer employees, are not so small when it comes to economic output, according to a new report commissioned by the Arizona Small Business Association (ASBA).
In fact, before the pandemic, they employed more than half the state’s workforce and produced $191.4 billion in annual economic activity, almost half the annual state GDP, the report shows.
“I’ve been studying the economy in Arizona for two, two-and-a-half decades at this point, and I didn’t really appreciate the extent of small businesses’ impact on the economy until we got into these numbers. It was very impressive,” said economist Jim Rounds, president of Rounds Consulting Group, Inc., which conducted the analysis for ASBA.