Arizona’s unemployment rate dropped slightly in January. It stood at 8.7 percent, which is down .3 from December, but almost .5 higher than the national rate. From Phoenix, KJZZ’s Mark Brodie reports.

MARK BRODIE: The state lost more than 34,000 non-farm jobs in January, but over the past decade, Arizona has lost close to 60,000 jobs in January. Mike Hayes owns Momentum Specialized Staffing in Phoenix, and says he’s seeing a lot of hiring right now for temp jobs that pay less than $15 an hour.

MIKE HAYES: There’s a lot of expectations from employers that there’s this mass amount of uniquely qualified people that are just gonna line up to do their job. And that is not true. And so, there’s a lot of people, they want to hire, but they’re gonna be real picky.

BRODIE: Hayes says some of those temp jobs are turning into full time ones, but he believes 9 percent unemployment in Arizona could be the new norm for a while.