Unemployment Numbers Show Decreases, No County Has Jobless Rate Above 10%

The unemployment number may have trickled up slightly in Arkansas during April, but counties throughout the state have seen precipitous drops in their unemployment rate in the past year, leading to no county having a rate above 10%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday that Arkansas’ unemployment rate was at 5.7% in April, up from 5.6% the month before.

However, the underlying numbers showed 31 of 75 counties in Arkansas were under the 5.7% figure including several of the larger counties in the state.

Washington County led the state with a 3.8% unemployment rate, down from the 4% rate in April 2014. Benton County was second in the state with a 4.1% rate, followed by Madison County (4.2%) and Arkansas and Howard counties with 4.3%.

Craighead County had a 4.6% unemployment rate, down from the 5% tallied in April 2014.

The Little Rock region also saw numbers in the 4% range, with 4.5% (down from 4.8% in April 2014) in Lonoke, 4.6% (down from 4.7% in April 2014) in Saline and 4.9% in both Prairie (down from 5.3%) and Pulaski (down from 5.2%).

Faulkner County was at 5%, while Garland County was at 5.6%, the numbers showed.

The Jonesboro area saw drops as well.

Greene County was at 5.5% (down from 5.9% last April), while Poinsett County was at 5.6% (down from 6.1% in April 2014).

Jackson County also fell from 9% in April 2014 to 8.4% in April 2015, while neighboring Independence County had a 6.3% rate in April.

Independence County officials also received good news Saturday when Ozark Mountain Poultry announced that a new feed mill would be built in Magness near Batesville, with a new plant in Batesville.

The projects are expected to create 225 jobs, content partner KAIT reported Saturday.

There were several drops in and around the West Memphis area.

Crittenden County had a 6.4% unemployment rate in April, decreasing from a 7% number in April 2014. Cross County was at 5.9%, dropping a half-point from the same time last year.

St. Francis County also dropped from 8.3% to 7.5% during the same period.

The state’s highest unemployment rate was in Southeast Arkansas. Chicot County had a 9.6% rate in April. However, the number was down from a 10.3% figure during April 2014.

Mississippi County was second in the state, with 9.3%. The numbers showed a slight increase over April 2014.

WORKFORCE NUMBERS
According to figures from the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services, the number of people in the workforce has increased in 19 of the 20 major cities in the state comparing April 2014 and April 2015 numbers.

The major increases were in Little Rock (from 88,343 to 91,739), Fayetteville (39,250 to 41,563), Jonesboro (32,169 to 34,363), Rogers (28,551 to 30,236) and Springdale (32,978 to 34,922).

The only drop in major cities was in Pine Bluff, which lost only 18 jobs in the workforce (from 15,880 to 15,862).

The May 2015 unemployment numbers will be released June 19.