WASHINGTON: Arkansas’s unemployment rate has tied its all time low, according to numbers released Friday by the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services. At 4.2 percent for the month of February, the rate is the same as the lowest number recorded in 2000. It is down from 4.4 percent in January of this year.
Kathy Deck, an economist at the University of Arkansas, says that while these numbers are good for all of the right reasons, the manufacturing sector still bears close examination.
“When we look at the sectors that are doing well, it is fairly broad based. The one concern is that manufacturing continues to be stagnant,” says Deck. The state’s unemployment rate is lower than the national average of 5 percent, and has dropped 1.4 percent since this time last year.
