NWA Bank Jobs Bouncing Back
by July 27, 2009 12:00 am 78 views
Believe it or not, there was some bright news in banking during the first quarter. Inspired by positive job numbers related to the hotel industry we wondered how bad the banking sector had suffered.
According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., bank jobs in Arkansas for calendar 2008 ended lower than a year before.
No surprise there.
A small surprise: the dip was less than a full percent. There were only 168 fewer bank employees at the end of 2008 (a total of 17,158) compared to 2007.
And, it’s only 1.3 percent less than the end of 2006, when 17,388 people were employed by Arkansas banks. (That year was apparently the pinnacle of that job market because 16,610 people held bank jobs in the state in 2005).
The really good news is — and we’ll take it where we can get it — during the first quarter of 2009, Arkansas banks added 105 of those jobs back. As of March 31, there were 17,263 people working in banks. We’re hopeful that number continues to grow, albeit at a moderate pace.