Seven of the eight metro areas in or connected to Arkansas posted jobless rate declines in July compared to June, as the jobs picture in the state continues to improve following significant job losses that followed Arkansas’ first COVID-19 case March.
Arkansas’ three largest in-state metro regions – central Arkansas, Fort Smith metro, and Northwest Arkansas – combined for 61,078 job losses in July compared with July 2019. The losses in the three metros account for 61.1% of all jobs losses in the state during July.
The July numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show the fourth full month of COVID disruption on the state economy. The number of unemployed in the central Arkansas metro was 28,620 in July, up from the 13,706 in July 2019, but down from the 31,464 unemployed in June. The region’s jobless rate was 8.3% in July, well above the 3.7% in July 2019, but better than the 9% in June.
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