Shutdowns to idle 600 aluminum jobs
Pace Industries idled its operations in Harrison and Fayetteville this week, putting nearly 600 jobs on hold during the nation's coronavirus crisis.
Founded in Harrison in 1970, the non-automotive aluminum die-cast manufacturer now has its headquarters in Fayetteville. The shutdown affected about 450 workers in Harrison and about 120 in Fayetteville, Bob Largent, president and chief executive officer of the Harrison Chamber of Commerce, said.
Telephone calls to Pace officials weren't returned Friday.
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Largent said the company still has maintenance workers and support staff at both facilities.
Largent also said Wabash National Corp., a wood products plant in Harrison, will have 285 employees return to work Monday, with the end of a long-planned shutdown unrelated to the pandemic.
-- Stephen Steed
February jobless rate in state still at 3.5%
The unemployment rate in Arkansas was unchanged in February at 3.5%, compared with January, according to a report Friday by the Arkansas Division of Workforce Services.
"[Friday's] report is the last before the coronavirus pandemic impacted the labor market," said Greg Kaza, executive director of the Arkansas Policy Foundation.
Employment data shows Arkansas' job creation rate tops four border states in the national economic expansion that "may have reached a cyclical peak this month as a result of the coronavirus pandemic," Kaza said in a news release.
There were 1,239 more employed and 269 more unemployed Arkansans in February.
"Arkansas' unemployment rate has remained stable at 3.5% since October 2019. While the number of unemployed has declined for the last six consecutive months, the movement was not enough to impact the unemployment rate overall," said Susan Price, the Arkansas Bureau of Labor Statistics' programs manager.
Nearly 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, almost five times the previous record set in 1982. For the week that ended March 21, 8,958 Arkansans filed unemployment claims, compared with 1,382 the week before.
-- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Falling stocks take index down by 13.81
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Friday at 313.44, down 13.81.
All of the index stocks fell Friday, completing a tumultuous week as stock prices whipsawed between actions in Congress and by the Federal Reserve and skyrocketing claims for unemployment benefits.
Shares of P.A.M. Transportation fell more than 14%. Murphy Oil Corp. shares fell 10%.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 03/28/2020