Northeast Arkansas enjoys historic unemployment lows
by June 21, 2017 7:16 pm 357 views
Arkansas had a record low unemployment rate in May of 3.4%, and Northeast Arkansas has followed that unprecedented trend.
Craighead County has an unemployment rate of 2.5%, its lowest mark in at least 20 years, according to an analysis of U.S. Department of Labor statistics by Talk Business & Politics. The most populous county in the region has flirted with unemployment numbers below 3% in the past, including October and November in 1999, but it never dipped this low. Jonesboro, the county seat, enjoys a low watermark of 2.5%, too.
Craighead County has 51,705 employed residents. There are 1,305 unemployed residents, meaning the county has a civilian workforce of 53,010. The raw number of unemployed residents has dropped almost 17% since January, and the workforce has grown by almost 2,000 workers according to numbers released. The Jonesboro metro has 36,349 workers, a 4.4% uptick since the start of the year. The number of unemployed has declined to 936, a decline of 2.1% since January.
Numbers released are not seasonally adjusted, and are subject to revision. The rates do not factor those who are unemployed and haven’t sought a job within the last 30 days, meaning the actual percentage of the population not working might be higher.
Other counties in NEA enjoy all-time unemployment lows, as well. Greene County, the region’s second most populated county, has an unemployment rate of 2.9%. It’s a drop of 1.4 percentage points from the start of the year, and it’s the lowest rate the county has enjoyed in at least a decade.
The county has 19,308 workers, a 3.7% increase since January. The raw number of unemployed workers has declined by almost 30% in the last four months to 574 workers seeking jobs. It’s seat, Paragould, has an unemployment rate of 3.3%, a 1.5 percentage point drop since the start of the year.
Other counties in the region have experienced significant declines in unemployment numbers. Mississippi County started the year at 6.9% rate, and has dropped to 4.9%. The labor force expanded to 17,202, a 3.1% increase. Poinsett County’s rate has dropped 1.3 percentage points to 3.5%. The labor force has grown by almost 4% to just a little more than 10,000 workers. Lawrence County’s rate has dropped from 5% to 3.1%. Those unemployed in the county declined from 342 at the start of the year to 216 in April, a 37% drop.