Arkansas' unemployment rate dropped to 5.6 percent in July compared with 5.7 percent in June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.
The national rate was 5.3 percent in July.
The state's unemployment rate has wavered between 5.6 percent and 5.8 percent since September. It hasn't slipped below 5.6 percent since August 2008, in the middle of the recession.
August 2008 was before the hard economic times hit Arkansas, said Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Arkansas saw a spike in unemployment in the fall of 2008, Pakko said.
"Now that we are down in the range of 5.5 percent, the unemployment rate is close to where there is now a rough balance between people finding new jobs, losing jobs and being between jobs," Pakko said.
A drop below 5.5 percent in the unemployment rate will likely be slow in coming, Pakko said.
Despite the minor change in the unemployment rate, Friday's report was one of the best since the recession ended in June 2009, said John Shelnutt, the administrator for economic analysis and tax research for the state's Department of Finance and Administration.
Private sector jobs -- excluding government jobs -- grew at 3 percent in July, Shelnutt said. All nonfarm jobs grew at a 2.5 percent pace, Shelnutt said. There were 29,200 more nonfarm jobs in Arkansas in July compared with July last year.
"Those are good numbers," Shelnutt said. "There have been comparatively few times over the past 25 years in which the state has experienced 2 percent or better growth like we are seeing now."
Since the end of the 1990-1991 recession, there have been only four times that private sector jobs have grown by more than 2 percent, Shelnutt said.
The biggest period was for about 4 years from 1992 to 1996. Two short periods of about nine months in 2000 to 2001 and 2006 to 2007 exceeded 2 percent growth. The fourth period has continued since January, Shelnutt said.
"But the total percentage growth in employment still trails the U.S. average in the current expansion that entered its seventh year in June," said Greg Kaza, executive director of the Arkansas Policy Foundation in Little Rock.
There were 43,600 more Arkansans employed last month than in July 2014 and 3,300 fewer Arkansans looking for work.
There were 300 fewer Arkansans in the labor force in July than in June, the first decline since April 2014.
The reason for the decline, however, was because the number of unemployed fell by 1,300 people from June to July, Pakko said.
Six industry sectors saw an increase in jobs from July 2014 to last month, four saw declines and one was unchanged.
With 52,700 jobs, construction employment is at its highest level since 2009, the year the recession ended, Kaza said. Construction jobs grew by 5,900 in July compared with a year earlier.
Pakko called construction "one of the most positive aspects of the employment report."
"That was one area, along with manufacturing, that had been very slow to recover," Pakko said. "It has not been since the past year or so that we've seen tangible signs of improvement in construction."
In July, construction jobs continued to grow at more than 10 percent, Shelnutt said.
"Some of that may have been Big River Steel [a $1.3 billion steel mill being built in Mississippi County], but it probably goes well beyond that," Shelnutt said.
Manufacturing still looks weak, Shelnutt said. There was a loss of 900 manufacturing jobs in July compared with July last year.
"And retail and food services are growing, but they are not dominating the numbers," Shelnutt said. "That means higher wage job categories are a key part of the recovery."
Nebraska had the lowest unemployment rate in the country last month at 2.7 percent, followed by North Dakota at 3.0 percent, Utah and Vermont at 3.6 percent each, and New Hampshire and Hawaii at 3.7 percent each.
West Virginia had the highest rate at 7.5 percent, followed by Nevada at 6.8 percent, Alaska at 6.7 percent, and Mississippi and New Mexico at 6.5 percent each.
Twenty-four states had unemployment rate declines, 14 had increases and 12 were unchanged.
Business on 08/22/2015