2010 saw Arkansas jobless rates up across the board

Editor’s note: Roby Brock, with our content partner Talk Business, wrote this report. He can be reached at [email protected]

While we’ve seen stability in the Arkansas unemployment rate, it has still been a sore spot for the state’s economic recovery.

Arkansas has not experienced the high unemployment rates of its surrounding states or the country, but statistics show a steady rise throughout 2010 at the statewide and local levels.

A new analysis conducted by economists with Arkansas Tech University’s College of Business in conjunction with Talk Business shows that in 16 key Arkansas cities, unemployment averaged higher in all of them in 2010.

In a bit of good news, however, the analysis shows that 7 of the 16 cities saw a lower unemployment rate than the state average for the year. Also, 3 cities – Little Rock, North Little Rock and Conway – saw their jobless rates climb, but still remained below the state average.

Three cities — Hot Springs, West Memphis and Pine Bluff — were trouble spots in 2010 for the jobless. Those 3 cities saw unemployment rates rise faster than the state average and end up higher than the state average.

Dr. Julie Trivitt, Assistant Professor of Economics at Arkansas Tech University’s College of Business, offered this analysis:

• In 2010 Arkansas had an unemployment rate of 7.9% which was significantly lower than the national average of 9.6. Arkansas’ unemployment rate increased from 7.3 for 2009, with the upward trend similar to the increase seen in the national numbers. The increase in the annual unemployment rate from 2009 to 2010 was observed in all metro areas of the state although Fort Smith only saw unemployment rise 0.1% while Hot Springs has the highest increase in unemployment with a 1% rise.

• Within the state we also see considerable variation in the unemployment picture among metro areas. To get a simple picture of how cities compare to the state average and the trend they are broken down into categories below.

• The seven cities in the upper left cell are those with lower unemployment rates and saw annual increases lower than the state average, indicating the employment situation on those areas remains strong despite a weak economy.

• The central Arkansas cities in the upper right cell are still below the state average although they saw unemployment rates grow faster than the state average in 2010.

• The lower left cell shows cities where the annual unemployment rate is higher than the state, but grew less quickly, so the employment situation in the markets in the upper right and lower left cells may not be dissimilar to the overall state employment picture.

• The lower right cell shows markets with unemployment rates higher than average for the state and that saw a larger annual increase.  These labor markets are likely to have the most slack and least upward pressure on wages as the economy recovers.