Jonesboro one of the top cities for working parents and manufacturing jobs

Jonesboro ranks fifth in the nation among places to work in manufacturing and sixth among cities for working parents, according to Smartasset.com, a website that says it is dedicated to “helping people make smart financial decisions.”

For its manufacturing rankings, it studied 376 metro areas and assessed them on six factors. Manufacturing as a percentage of workforce; four-year job growth; one-year job growth; four-year income growth; one-year income growth; and housing costs as a percentage of average manufacturing workers’ income were the metrics used.

For its “Top Cities for Working Parents” report, Smartasset.com compared 524 cities in unemployment, household income, housing costs, commute time, violent crime rate, graduation rate, childcare costs, state policy rating and percentage of workforce working more than 49 weeks per year.

“Local schools can take pride in a 90% graduation rate,” the study determined. “That ranks in the top 16% … Housing in the city is also affordable. In fact, Jonesboro ranks in the top 10% of all cities for this metric.”

Smartasset.com noted Jonesboro’s consistent strength in recent years. “Between 2016 and 2017, the number of manufacturing jobs grew by 10.3%, and average incomes for manufacturing workers increased by 4.4%,” it reported.

“Over the four years leading up to 2017, manufacturing jobs grew by 17.4%, and average incomes increased by 9% … Those employed in the manufacturing industry who have kids are in luck.”

Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin said the two reports “just confirm what we’ve believed for several years – that our hometown is one of the best in America, and there’s nothing we can’t accomplish when we work together.”

Metro areas in the South and Midwest did best in the study of Top Places to Work in Manufacturing. Elkhart-Goshen, Indiana, and Greenville, North Carolina, ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the report. The rest of the top 10: Elizabeth-Fort Knox, Kentucky; Spartanburg, South Carolina; Jonesboro; Morristown, Tennessee; Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, South Carolina; Athens-Clarke County, Georgia; Rockford, Illinois; and Lima, Ohio.

The top 10 cities in Places to Live for Working Parents:

Ames, Iowa; Iowa City, Iowa; College Station, Texas; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Oshkosh, Wisconsin; Jonesboro; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Wichita Falls, Texas; Midland, Texas; and Provo, Utah.