More positives than negatives in recent Jonesboro, Craighead County sales tax, unemployment numbers

Northeast Arkansas’ hub city and its home county continued to show historic economic growth in February. Craighead County collected $1.999 million in sales tax receipts last month, the second most ever collected during a single month in the county’s history, according to the Craighead County Treasurer’s Office. It was only topped by the $1,999,989 collected in December 2009. The figure is a 2.1% increase from the same month in 2016.

“I was hoping we’d break that $2 million mark,” Craighead County Treasurer Terry McNatt told Talk Business & Politics.

Jonesboro was slightly down compared to its February 2016 figure. The city collected $1.782 million in sales tax receipts, a 1.35% decrease from the previous year. Through the first two months, the city has collected $3.271 million in sales tax, $62,341 more than during the same timeframe in 2016. It represents about a 5% increase. The city is down about $22,794 from its anticipated budget through the first two months, but minor fluctuations are common this time of year, officials said.

The county and city continue an overall streak of economic gains that are hard to match. Economists, civic and business leaders have been hard pressed to determine a finite reason.

Jonesboro is the focal point of the entire region, and many in communities that surround the city travel there to shop, dine, receive medical care, and find entertainment. The city and county have a diversified jobs base with agriculture, medical, government jobs, retail, restaurants, light manufacturing, food processing, and others serve as primary job producing sectors.

Low unemployment numbers continue to be a hallmark of the region. Craighead County’s unemployment rate ticked up slightly in December rising by two-tenths of a point to 3%. It’s still nine-tenths of a point lower than it was in January 2016, and is lower than the state average of 3.9%. Craighead County was tied for the third lowest unemployment rate in Arkansas, trailing only Benton and Washington counties.

The civilian labor force in the county has grown to 52,125, an increase of almost 1,000 as compared to January 2016. There are 1,552 more workers in the civilian workforce as compared to December 2015, a 3% increase, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Jonesboro had an identical uptick in December. The city had an unemployment rate of 3%, nine-tenths of a point increase since January 2016. The city had a yearly unemployment low of 2.7% in April. There were 36,434 civilians with jobs in the city in December, a 3% increase from the previous year. The number of unemployment claims dropped from 1,404 in January 2016, to 1,075 in December, a 7.6% decrease.