Arkansas' unemployment rate increased slightly in April, moving up one-tenth of a percentage point to 3.2% and driven primarily by a surge of workers reentering the labor pool and seeking jobs, state officials said Friday.
Despite the uptick, the state set a record for the number of Arkansans employed. This was the first increase in the state's joblessness rate in two years, when unemployment jumped to 10% in April 2020 as the pandemic strangled the economy and job growth.
Last month, Arkansas' civilian labor force added 5,655, a result of 4,522 more employed and 1,133 more unemployed Arkansans, according to statistics released by the state Division of Workforce Services. The state remained below the U.S. unemployment rate of 3.6%, which was flat from March.
Even with the slight bump in the unemployment rate, more Arkansans were employed in April than ever before. Just more than 1.3 million Arkansans had jobs in April.
"The record high for employed workers is great news for Arkansas families," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Friday. "People are moving to Arkansas for the good-paying jobs that are available. Our unemployment rate continues to beat the national rate and more people are returning to the workforce. Our strategy of increasing workforce training opportunities and creating jobs is working and will continue."
Employment increased for the fourth month in a row and there were 35,500 more Arkansans employed last month than there were with jobs in April 2021, when unemployment was at 4.5%.
"We are at a record right now for the number of people employed in Arkansas," Commerce Secretary Mike Preston said Friday. "That's pretty incredible that we're back to those numbers. We were inching toward that before the pandemic but then it all got wiped out. We've been slowly coming back since."
Another highlight was the 5,655 Arkansans returning to the labor pool. "We've been waiting to see more people come back into the labor force, so that's good to see," Preston added.
Four consecutive months of employment growth is solid momentum for economic growth, according to Michael Pakko, state economist at the Arkansas Economic Development Institute. "There was strong employment growth and we had a swelling of the labor force, and that's a good sign," Pakko said.
It's also positive that more Arkansans are once again searching for work, though that movement did spur an unemployment rate increase, Pakko said.
"Sometimes you can get a temporary increase in the unemployment rate when people are coming back into the labor force after spending a spell of unemployment not looking for a job," he added. "Overall, the report was good."
The leisure and hospitality industry posted the largest jobs gains – adding 4,500 workers – as the sector gears up for seasonal increases over the summer. Educational and health service jobs increased by 2,000. Fin,ancial activities added 1,200 workers and manufacturing gained 1,100 jobs.
"Manufacturing continues to add jobs and that's a good indicator of the growth that we're seeing," Preston said. "Leisure and hospitality jumped again, but that's to be expected as we get into the summer months."
Losses were posted in professional and business services, down 700 jobs; construction, which dropped 600 workers; and retail trade, which lost 400 jobs.
Looking forward, Pakko projects unemployment rates may play bouncy ball over the summer.
"I think we're going to see the unemployment rate bounce around 3-3.5% here for the next few months because that's about as low as it can go without really causing some labor shortages," he said.