The economy of Phoenix was focused during the early years of Phoenix primarily on agriculture and natural resources, dependent mainly on the "5Cs", which were copper, cattle, climate, cotton, and citrus. Since World War II, the Phoenix economy has become diversified.
The early economy of Phoenix was focused primarily on agriculture and natural resources, dependent mainly on the "5Cs", which were copper, cattle, climate, cotton, and citrus. [1] Once the Salt River Project was completed, the city, and the valley in general, began to develop more rapidly, due to a now fairly reliable source of water. Led by agriculture, the number one crop in the 1910s was alfalfa, followed by citrus, cotton, and other crops, with almost a quarter-million acres under cultivation by the middle of the decade. World War I would greatly change the agricultural landscape of the valley, and teach the farmers of the region an invaluable, if difficult lesson. [2] [3]
As the war began, imports of foreign cotton were no longer available to American manufacturing, since cotton was a major material used in the production of tires and airplane fabric, those manufacturers began to look for new sources. The Salt River Valley looked to be an ideal location for expansion of the cotton crop. Led by Goodyear, tire and airplane manufacturers began to buy more and more cotton from valley growers. In fact, the town of Goodyear was founded during this period when the company purchased desert acreage southwest of Phoenix to grow cotton. By 1918, cotton had replaced alfalfa as the number one industry in Phoenix. As the price of cotton rose, more and more of Phoenix acreage was devoted to the crop. However, in 1920, when cotton accounted for three-quarters of the cultivated acreage in the valley, the bottom fell out of the cotton market due to the dual reasons of lower demand due to the end of the war production machine and foreign growers now once again having access to the American market, resulting in their shipping large amounts of cotton to the U.S. This led to a diversification of crops in the valley from that point forward. [4] [3]
Cattle and the meat industry was also a vital part of the economy. The cotton bust led to more production of alfalfa, wheat, and barley, as well as citrus. The grain production in turn led to an increase in the cattle ranching industry. By the end of the Roaring Twenties, Phoenix boasted the largest meat processing plant between Dallas and Los Angeles. [5] [6] While that plant and its attendant stockyards are long gone, a remnant remains in the famous Stockyards Restaurant. The prosperity following the local depression caused by the cotton bust enabled other industries to grow as well. The city's first skyscraper, the seven-story Heard Building, was built in 1920. This was followed by the 10-story Luhrs Building after the bust in 1924, and then by the Westward Ho, a 16-story hotel constructed in 1928. [7]
With the establishment of a main rail line (the Southern Pacific) in 1926, the opening of the Union Station in 1923, and the creation of Sky Harbor airport by the end of the decade, the city became more easily accessible. [8] The construction of the Westward Ho was part of a concerted effort on the part of both civic and business organizations in the city to develop it as a tourist destination. Phoenix already had two highly rated resorts, the Ingleside Inn and the Jokake Inn, and after the Westward Ho, the Arizona Biltmore, designed by one of Frank Lloyd Wright's students, was constructed in 1929. [9] Other major hotels were built during this era, such as the San Carlos (also in 1928), which led older hotels, like the Hotel Adams, to refurbish themselves in order to remain competitive. [9] By the end of the decade, the tourism industry topped $10 million for the first time in the city's history. [10] Tourism remains one of the top ten economic drivers of the city to this day. [11]
The Great Depression affected Phoenix, but the effects were not as deep or long-lasting as they were in much of the rest of the country. Phoenix had a very diverse economy, and was not heavily vested in the manufacturing sector. [12] While the stock market crash did not affect the city very much directly, the suppression of the national economy did. Revenue from all major industries in the valley decreased drastically: copper mining dropped from $155 million in 1929 to $15 million by 1932; agriculture and livestock also saw reductions during that same period, although not as drastic, from $42 million to $14 million and $25.5 million to $15 million, respectively. Compared to the rest of the country, and even the rest of the state, Phoenix was not as badly affected by bankruptcies, foreclosures, or unemployment, and by 1934 the recovery was underway. [13]
At the conclusion of World War II, the valley's economy began to further grow and expand. After the war, the city's population began to surge, as many men who had undergone their military training at the various bases in and around Phoenix returned with their families. In 1948, Motorola chose Phoenix for the site of its new research and development center for military electronics. They were followed in time by other high-tech companies, such as Intel and McDonnell Douglas. [14]
The construction industry, spurred on by the city's growth, further expanded with the development of Sun City. Much like Levittown, New York became the template for suburban development in post-World War II America, [15] Sun City, just northwest of Phoenix, became the template for retirement communities when Del E. Webb opened the community in 1960. Over 100,000 people visited the community during the opening weekend. [16]
As the financial crisis of 2007–10 began, construction in Phoenix collapsed in 2008, and housing prices plunged. Historically, Arizona trailed the rest of the country into recession, but Phoenix entered this last recession before the rest of the country due to the prominence of the construction industry in its economy. [17]
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the United States Department of Commerce, in 2018, Maricopa County had a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of just over $220.8 billion, a 4.5% increase over the prior year. [18]
The 10 largest industries were, in descending order: real estate ($31 billion), financial services ($21.3 billion), manufacturing ($16.8 billion), health care ($15.7 billion), retail ($14.9 billion), wholesale ($12.9 billion), professional services ($12.8 billion), construction ($10.4 billion), waste management ($9.1 billion), and tourism ($6.8 billion). Government, if it had been a private industry, would have been ranked third on the list, generating $18.9 billion. [11]
Manufacturing ranks third among Phoenix's industries, and includes the production of computers and other electronic equipment, missiles, aircraft parts, chemicals, and processed foods.
The military has a significant presence in Phoenix, with Luke Air Force Base located in the western suburbs. At its height, in the 1940s, the Phoenix area had three military bases: Luke Field (still in use), Falcon Field, and Williams Air Force Base (now Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport), with numerous auxiliary air fields located throughout the region. [19] Foreign governments have established 30 consular offices and eleven active foreign chambers of commerce and trade associations in metropolitan Phoenix. [20] [21]
In major job markets, as defined as those markets with greater than 1 million jobs, Greater Phoenix ranked number 1 in employment growth prior to the recession beginning in 2007. Just three years later, it ended its free fall in job growth by hitting the bottom of the list of those 28 major markets, dead last. However, 2013 saw Greater Phoenix rebound to 7th. Arizona's year-over-year job growth (of which Phoenix is the main driver) continued to outpace the nation through August 2013. Arizona's year-over-year job growth was at or above 2.0% each month of that year. In contrast, national job growth was between 1.5% and 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. [22] [23]
In 2013, the Phoenix area saw a 2.7% increase in non-farm employment, from 1.758 million to 1.805 million. Job growth has occurred across the board, with the fastest rate in education and health services, trade, transportation and utilities, professional and business services, financial activities, and leisure and hospitality.
According to the 2010 Census, the top ten employment categories are office and administrative support occupations (17.8%), sales and related occupations (11.6%), food preparation and serving related occupations (9%), transportation and material moving occupations (6.1%), management occupations (5.8%), education, training, and library occupations (5.5%), business and financial operations occupations (5.3%), healthcare practitioners and technical occupations (5.3%), production occupations (4.6%), and construction and extraction occupations (4.2%). The single largest occupation is retail salespersons, which account for 3.7% of the entire workforce. [24] As of December 2013, 12.9% of the workforce were government employees, a high number because the city is both the county seat and state capitol. The civilian labor force was 2,033,400 (down 0.5% from twelve months earlier), and the unemployment rate stood at 7.6%, above the national rate of 6.7%. [25] [26]
Phoenix is currently home to four Fortune 500 companies: electronics corporation Avnet, [27] mining company Freeport-McMoRan, [28] retailer PetSmart, [29] and waste hauler Republic Services. [30] Honeywell's Aerospace division is headquartered in Phoenix, and the valley hosts many avionics and mechanical facilities. [31] Intel employs 12,000 people in the area, which includes the second-largest Intel location in the country. [32] American Express hosts their financial transactions, customer information, and their entire website in Phoenix. The city is also home to: the headquarters of U-Haul, a rental and moving supply company; Best Western, the world's largest family of hotels; Apollo Education Group, parent of the University of Phoenix; and utility company Pinnacle West. Choice Hotels has its IT division and operations support center in the North Phoenix area. American Airlines has a strong presence in Phoenix. Mesa Air Group, a regional airline group, is headquartered in Phoenix. [33]
Phoenix is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States and the most populous state capital in the country.
The economy of Mozambique is $14.396 billion by gross domestic product as of 2018, and has developed since the end of the Mozambican Civil War (1977–1992). In 1987, the government embarked on a series of macroeconomic reforms, which were designed to stabilize the economy. These steps, combined with donor assistance and with political stability since the multi-party elections in 1994, have led to dramatic improvements in the country's growth rate. Inflation was brought to single digits during the late 1990s, although it returned to double digits in 2000–02. Fiscal reforms, including the introduction of a value-added tax and reform of the customs service, have improved the government's revenue collection abilities.
Chandler is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and a suburb in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler Metropolitan Statistical Area. Chandler is considered to be a part of the East Valley.
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and is part of the Phoenix metropolitan area. Named Scottsdale in 1894 after its founder Winfield Scott, a retired U.S. Army chaplain, the city was incorporated in 1951 with a population of 2,000. At the 2020 census, the population was 241,361, which had grown from 217,385 in 2010. Its slogan is "The West's Most Western Town". Over the past two decades, it has been one of the fastest growing cities in the United States.
The Phoenix metropolitan area, also known as the Valley of the Sun, the Salt River Valley, metro Phoenix, or The Valley, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the Southwestern United States, with its largest principal city being the city of Phoenix. It includes much of central Arizona. The United States Office of Management and Budget designates the area as the Phoenix–Mesa–Chandler Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), defining it as Maricopa and Pinal counties. It anchors the Arizona Sun Corridor megaregion along with the second-most populous metropolitan area in the state, the Tucson metropolitan area. The gross domestic product of the Phoenix metropolitan area was $255 billion in 2018, 16th highest amongst metro areas in the United States.
The history of Arizona encompasses the Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Post-Archaic, Spanish, Mexican, and American periods. About 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, Paleo-Indians settled in what is now Arizona. A few thousand years ago, the Ancestral Puebloan, the Hohokam, the Mogollon and the Sinagua cultures inhabited the state. However, all of these civilizations mysteriously disappeared from the region in the 15th and 16th centuries. Today, countless ancient ruins can be found in Arizona. Arizona was part of the state of Sonora, Mexico from 1822, but the settled population was small. In 1848, under the terms of the Mexican Cession the United States took possession of Arizona above the Gila River after the Mexican War, and became part of the Territory of New Mexico. By means of the Gadsden Purchase, the United States secured the northern part of the state of Sonora, which is now Arizona south of the Gila River in 1854.
Avnet, Inc. is a distributor of electronic components headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, named after Charles Avnet, who founded the company in 1921. After its start on Manhattan's Radio Row, the company became incorporated in 1955 and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1961. On May 8, 2018, Avnet changed stock markets to Nasdaq, trading under the same ticker AVT.
Phoenix–Mesa Gateway Airport, formerly Williams Gateway Airport (1994–2008) and Williams Air Force Base (1948–1993), is an international airport in the southeastern area of Mesa, Arizona, 20 miles southeast of Phoenix, in Maricopa County. The airport, owned and operated by the Phoenix–Mesa Gateway Airport Authority, is a reliever airport for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. It is a base for Allegiant Air.
The history of Phoenix, Arizona, goes back millennia, beginning with nomadic paleo-Indians who existed in the Americas in general, and the Salt River Valley in particular, about 7,000 BC until about 6,000 BC. Mammoths were the primary prey of hunters. As that prey moved eastward, they followed, vacating the area. Other nomadic tribes moved into the area, mostly from Mexico to the south and California to the west. Around approximately 1,000 BC, the nomadic began to be accompanied by two other types of cultures, commonly called the farmers and the villagers, prompted by the introduction of maize into their culture. Out of these archaic Indians, the Hohokam civilization arose. The Hohokam first settled the area around 1 AD, and in about 500 years, they had begun to establish the canal system which enabled agriculture to flourish in the area. They suddenly disappeared by 1450, for unknown reasons. By the time the first Europeans arrived at the beginning of the 16th century, the two main groups of native Indians who inhabited the area were the O'odham and Sobaipuri tribes.
Dwight Bancroft Heard was an American rancher in Arizona, along with the president of the Arizona Cotton Association. He is famous for publishing the Arizona Republican, now The Arizona Republic, from 1912 to 1929. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1928. He died in 1929, a few months before the Heard Museum, a Native American art museum named after him, was opened.
Agriculture in the Southwest United States is very important economically in that region.
The Phoenix Metropolitan Area consists of a valley that has multiple city regions in it. The East Valley is a multi-city region within the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of Arizona. East Valley is a loosely defined region, with differing definition of what constitutes it.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Phoenix, Arizona, United States.
The United States exports more cotton than any other country, though it ranks third in total production, behind China and India. Almost all of the cotton fiber growth and production occurs in the Southern United States and the Western United States, dominated by Texas, California, Arizona, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. More than 99 percent of the cotton grown in the US is of the Upland variety, with the rest being American Pima. Cotton production is a $21 billion-per-year industry in the United States, employing over 125,000 people in total, as against growth of forty billion pounds a year from 77 million acres of land covering more than eighty countries. The final estimate of U.S. cotton production in 2012 was 17.31 million bales, with the corresponding figures for China and India being 35 million and 26.5 million bales, respectively. Cotton supports the global textile mills market and the global apparel manufacturing market that produces garments for wide use, which were valued at USD 748 billion and 786 billion, respectively, in 2016. Furthermore, cotton supports a USD 3 trillion global fashion industry, which includes clothes with unique designs from reputed brands, with global clothing exports valued at USD 1.3 trillion in 2016.
The following is a timeline of the history of the area which today comprises the U.S. state of Arizona. Situated in the desert southwest, for millennia the area was home to a series of Pre-Columbian peoples. By 1 AD, the dominant groups in the area were the Hohokam, the Mogollon, and the Ancestral Puebloans. The Hohokam dominated the center of the area which is now Arizona, the Mogollon the southeast, and the Puebloans the north and northeast. As these cultures disappeared between 1000 and 1400 AD, other Indian groups settled in Arizona. These tribes included the Navajo, Apache, Southern Paiute, Hopi, Yavapai, Akimel O'odham, and the Tohono O'odham.
Crime in Phoenix has been declining since the 1990s.
Banner Desert Medical Center, formerly Desert Samaritan Medical Center, or “Desert Sam," is a 615-bed non-profit, short-term acute care hospital located in Mesa, Arizona adjacent to the border with Tempe, providing tertiary care and healthcare services to the East Valley portion of the greater Phoenix area. It is designated by the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) as a Level I trauma center. It is part of the locally based, regional Banner Health system of non-profit hospitals and clinics.
Alexander J. Chandler (1859-1950) was the first veterinary surgeon in the Arizona territory and the founder of the city of Chandler.