Arkansas jobless rate holds at 3.8% for third straight month

For the third month in a row, Arkansas’ unemployment rate has held at 3.8%, just one-tenth of a percentage point below the national average and two-tenths of a point above year ago levels, state labor officials said Friday (May 18).

Between March and April, Arkansas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.8% as 1,093 workers fell out of the state’s 1,351,983-person labor pool, according to data produced by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and released each month by the state Department of Workforce Services.

Of the nearly 1,100 workers that were moved to the sidelines of the state’s job marketplace, there were 1,398 fewer employed and 305 unemployed.

“Despite the small decline in the size of the civilian labor force, Arkansas’ unemployment rate remained unchanged in April,” said Susan Price, the state’s BLS operations manager.

Earlier this month, the BLS reported that the nation’s jobless rate fell below 4% for the first time since the waning days of former President Bill Clinton administration nearly 20 years ago. The jobless rate drop to 3.9% was aided by a monthly average of more than 205,000 workers added to America’s brimming labor pool in the first four months of 2018, BLS officials said.

The red-hot job market led U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta to offer an upbeat assessment of U.S. labor, crediting President Donald Trump’s agenda for the historic low levels of unemployment.

“This is a great time to be a job seeker in America,” said Acosta. “Last month, the unemployment rate fell to 3.9%, the lowest level in nearly 18 years. The unemployment rate for adult women was 3.5%, the lowest level since December 2000. Both the African-American unemployment rate and the Hispanic unemployment rate are at the lowest level ever recorded.”

The Labor chief added: “America’s job creators are confident. Since President Trump’s election, nearly 3.2 million American jobs have been created. That includes nearly 800,000 jobs added since the President signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law.”

ARKANSAS ECONOMIST: ARKANSAS JOB MARKET SLOWING DOWN
However, University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) economist Michael Pakko said the state-level employment and unemployment data suggest slowing job growth in the Natural State. In his “Arkansas Economist” blog posted today, Pakko noted the two-tenths of a percentage point uptick in the state’s jobless rate from a year ago, the fact that the number of employed was down for the seventh straight month, and the number of employed was up for the fifth month in a row.

“The changes are small — and not statistically significant — but they suggest a clear slowdown in labor market growth compared to a year ago,” said Pakko, director of UALR’s Arkansas Economic Development Institute.

Nationwide, the BLS reported unemployment rates were lower in April in four states, and stable in 46 states and the District of Columbia. Twelve states had jobless rate decreases from a year earlier and 38 states and the District of Columbia had little or no change. The national jobless rate is five percentage points lower than a year ago.

Hawaii continues to have the nation’s lowest unemployment rate, setting a new all-time low at a tidy 2%. California and Wisconsin also set lows at 4.2% and 2.8%, respectively. Alaska had the highest jobless rate at 7.3%, while Texas and California had robust over-the-month increases in nonfarm payroll employment in April with job additions at 39,600 and 36,200, respectively.

In Arkansas, nonfarm payroll jobs in Arkansas increased 6,900 in April to total 1,250,400. Seven major industry sectors posted gains, three remained stable, while one saw a slight decline. Overall, professional and business services increased 3,400, with new job adds mainly in administrative and support services. The manufacturing and trade, transportation and utilities sectors each added 1,000 jobs for the month.

Compared to a year ago, Arkansas’ nonfarm payroll employment is up 6,100. Growth was reported in five major industry sectors, including the professional business services and manufacturing sectors at the leading edge of the brimming labor pool with respective gains of 4,100 and 3,100.

Employment in trade, transportation and utilities for the year rose 1,000, matching the month-to-month total. Information was the biggest decliner with 1,000 job losses, mainly due to telecom and data processing workers moving to the sidelines. Arkansas’ construction sector continues to shed workers, losing 800 between March and April.

The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) noted that 29 states added construction jobs and Arkansas and other states could have seen stronger employment growth in the blue collar-focused sector if construction firms could find more qualified workers to hire.

“Firms in many parts of the country are working to keep pace with growing demand for construction services,” said AGC chief economist Ken Simonson. “Many of those firms are having a hard time finding and hiring enough qualified workers as the pool of available workers remains very tight.”