Arkansas' unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.6 percent in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday.
The federal agency revised February's unemployment rate from the original 5.5 percent to 5.6 percent.
The national unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in March.
The report was mixed, two state economists said.
The overall report was "generally pretty positive," said Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
The state's civilian labor force was up by 37,700, or 2.9 percent, for the year from March 2014 to last month, Deck said. The labor force is the sum of the employed and unemployed people in the state.
"It's not surprising that we're seeing a little bit of strength now in the whole economy," Deck said. "We'll see the unemployment rate improve as employment heats up, but it will be at a slower pace."
But Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, noted that March was the first time since February 2011 that Arkansas had a monthly increase in the number of unemployed. There were about 74,500 unemployed in Arkansas in March, 777 more than in February, Pakko said.
"On the other hand, we did see an increase in employment for the month, so [there was] a continuing trend toward expansion of the labor force," Pakko said.
From February to March, the number of employed Arkansans was up 3,890 and the labor force rose by 4,667, Pakko said. It was the 17th straight month that there was a monthly increase in employment, Pakko said.
The other survey conducted by the government -- with thousands of employers in Arkansas -- showed a gain of 22,100 jobs from March to March.
Over the year, the leisure and hospitality sector added 7,200 jobs; the trade, transportation and utilities sector grew by 5,700 jobs; and the educational and health services sector had 3,300 more jobs.
Employment in Arkansas' mining and logging sector lost 200 jobs compared with March last year and was unchanged since February. That was not bad compared with energy sector jobs regionally, Deck said.
"Texas and Oklahoma and other very energy intensive states had some bad numbers in March," Deck said. "We see companies like Schlumberger announcing tens of thousands of job cuts across the world. So it's not surprising for us to see that, either, on the mining and logging side. That's related to those low energy prices."
Schlumberger, the world's largest supplier of technology and project management in the oil and gas industry, said last week that it will cut 11,000 jobs internationally on top of already reducing its workforce by 15 percent. The Houston-based company employed 126,000 last summer.
Nevada had the highest unemployment rate in the country at 7.1 percent, followed by Mississippi at 6.8 percent, South Carolina at 6.6 percent, and Louisiana and West Virginia at 6.6 percent each.
Nebraska had the lowest unemployment rate at 2.6 percent, followed by North Dakota at 3.1 percent, Utah at 3.4 percent, South Dakota at 3.5 percent and Minnesota at 3.7 percent.
Business on 04/22/2015