Fort Smith jobless rate jumps to 7.8%

What goes down also may come back up.

After three consecutive months of declines or no change, the Fort Smith metro unemployment rate in October jumped to 7.8% from the September rate of 7%.

The other Arkansas metro areas saw rates stay the same or increase slightly. None saw a dramatic increase like that posted for the Fort Smith area. Arkansas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from 7.1% in September to 7.6% in October. The U.S. jobless rate was 10.2% in October, up over the 9.8% in September and significantly higher than the 6.6% in October 2008.

Fort Smith’s regional jobless rate is considerably higher than the 4.8% unemployment rate of October 2008, according to information released Wednesday morning (Dec. 2) by the U.S. Department of Labor. Also, the number of unemployed in the Fort Smith area was 10,976 in October, up 64.8% over the 6,658 unemployed in October 2008.

The monthly Fort Smith metro unemployment rates for 2009 are:
October 2009: 7.8%
September 2009: 7%
July 2009: 7.7%
June 2009: 7.8%
May 2009: 7.5%
April 2009: 7.1%
March 2009: 7.3%
Feb. 2009: 7.7%
Jan. 2009: 7.7%

October saw a big drop in the number of Fort Smith area manufacturing jobs (22,300) compared to September (22,700). The region has lost 2,300 manufacturing jobs between October 2008 and October 2009, and has lost 28% of its manufacturing jobs since the beginning of the decade.

Fort Smith metro job sectors seeing October gains in employment were professional and business services and health services (13,900 jobs, compared to 13,700 in September), trade, transportation and utilities (25,000 jobs, compared to 24,900 in September) and government (19,400 jobs, compared to 19,300 in September).

The Northwest Arkansas metro area saw its September unemployment rate increase to 5.3%, compared to 5.2% in September. The area’s October 2008 jobless rate was 3.6%

The Little Rock-North Little Rock metro area saw its October unemployment stay at 5.9%. The area’s October 2008 jobless rate was 4.2%

FORT SMITH METRO AREA HISTORY
Past annual average unemployment rates
2008: 4.8%
2007: 5.3%
2006: 4.9%
2005: 4.5%
2004: 5.2%
2003: 5.5%
2002: 5%
2001: 4.2%
2000: 3.7%

ARKANSAS METRO AREAS
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers
October 2009: 5.3%
September 2009: 5.2%
October 2008: 3.6%

Hot Springs
October 2009: 6.6%
September 2009: 6.5%
October 2008: 5.2%

Jonesboro
October 2009: 6.2%
September 2009: 6.2%
October 2008: 4.3%

Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway
October 2009: 5.9%
September 2009: 5.9%
October 2008: 4.2%

Memphis-West Memphis
October 2009: 9.9%
September 2009: 9.9%
October 2008: 6.9%

Pine Bluff
October 2009: 8.8%
September 2009: 8.8%
October 2008: 6.9%

Texarkana
October 2009: 7%
September 2009: 6.8%
October 2008: 4.8%