This thought comes to me everytime I visit Phoenix, hear about Phoenix's staggering growth rate, and more recently, Winnepeg Patriot's post about Phoenix. I've read that Maricopa County, by 2030, will have 9 million people! That's the size of Chicago! My question is, where do all of these people work? Is everyone in PHX a real estate agent? There just doesn't appear to be any real industry other than a handful of manufacturing plants around the airport. What are the largest economic sectors? Who are the largest employers? Are retirees a large enough percentage of the population to allow for a disproportionate level of primary economic activity? It just baffles me how the city can feed its some 3 million inhabitants. I remember when people used to talk about how ethereal L.A.'s economy was.

I work with a guy who commutes from pheonix to LA on mondays, stays till Friday and then heads to Pheonix. Cheaper home prices i suppose. Perhaps this is commonplace amongst pheonix dwellers

Beat the heat.

In addition to vast numbers of people who work in real estate and construction, hotels, health care and other service industries, there's actually a good deal of other stuff going on there, too. Some samples:

There's some biotech industries there (http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0909innexus09.html)
There's some plastics industry there (http://www.expansionmanagement.com/smo/articleviewer/default.asp?cmd=articledetail&articleid=16620&st=5)
They make pretzels in Phoenix (http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0822snyders22.html) - apparently there's other food processing industries, too
They make fasteners in Phoenix (http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=93287)
There's an IT industry in Phoenix (http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2005/08/08/story8.html)
There are a bunch of machine shops in the Phoenix area, some of this has to do with defense industries (http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0808sbmanufacturing08.html)
Monster.com employs a bunch of people in the Phoenix area (http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2005/07/25/story2.html)
This next one is one of the biggies there . . .
Intel has some big facilities in Chandler, and they're making them bigger (http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2005/07/25/daily4.html?jst=b_ln_hl) - there are some other microchip factories there too, apparently
And . . .
There's even some labor shortages in the Phoenix area (http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0905laborshortage05.html)

my old roommate from college moved out there 2 years ago right after graduation. he works at some resort. i'm guessing those types of things (reports, retirement communities, golf courses, etc) are major employers out there.

They make windows near Phoenix (http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2005/03/21/daily41.html) - which shouldn't be a surpise given all the residential construction in the area
There is an electronics industry in Phoenix (http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/manufacturing/general/2005/04/18/phoenix_daily9.html)
More IT companies in Phoenix (http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2005/05/02/story5.html)
An example of part of the real estate biz there (http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/tempe/articles/0527cr-countrywide21Z10.html)

OK, I'm out of articles. :D

My sister is a policewoman there! :cool:

You know you can use google, wiki, or Encarta to find this out? We are like any other big city in North America with mixture of service, information, and manufacturing economy.

I work with a guy who commutes from pheonix to LA on mondays, stays till Friday and then heads to Pheonix. Cheaper home prices i suppose. Perhaps this is commonplace amongst pheonix dwellers

well thats dumb, he could just live in Bakersfield. :yes:

I work with a guy who commutes from pheonix to LA on mondays, stays till Friday and then heads to Pheonix. Cheaper home prices i suppose. Perhaps this is commonplace amongst pheonix dwellers
Where does he stay, in a hotel? I don't understand how this would save him money. Seems very odd.

Here is the ten largest employers in AZ

http://phoenix.about.com/od/empllarge/a/lgemployers2003.htm

Like any large metropolitan area, a bit of everything is here. But the real economic engine in Phoenix is fed by cheap land, cheap water, and cheap housing. Because growth is umimpeded by either thoughtful planning or physical constraints, the machinery runs on full throttle, eating up the very landscape which used to make Arizona alluring.

It is fascinating to see Arizona become a satellite of California, how the disparity in housing prices functions as a relief valve for the overheated coastal market. Median wages are below average, investment is minimal, and education is underfunded. Essentially, Arizona is a libertarian's economic wet dream: growth for the sake of growth, with no interceding values buffering the outcome.

The thing that is fueling growth here, is the few that work in high-tech sectors like intel, raytheon, motorola, and other companies like that, press demand for services like resorts, retailling, construction, etc. Since housing is so cheap here, grocery workers and and hotel workers are easily able to buy houses of their own, when they do, they require more services. Major employers are also city governments, ie police, fire, city hall, utilities, and even they are able to buy houses, demand services, keeping the economic engine roaring here. Then there are the old people in sun city, sun lakes, and mesa, and the snowbirds, all that makes the phoenix area just, GROW!! My mom works in healthcare, my father is a teacher, and my brother is an engineer for Alcoa here in phx (soon to be transferring to indiana). It's crazy here.