Unemployment Numbers Fall in Arkansas

The unemployment numbers in Arkansas are falling which is good news for the citizens of this state. Studies show that there are thousands of people in Arkansas who were able to find employment during the month of January, which helped the unemployment numbers to fall dramatically. The jobless rate was at 7.6 percent during the month of January, down from 7.8 percent during the month of December. The data and information was provided by the United States Department of Labor as well as the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services, which shows that the labor market has increased in the state, with thousands of individuals gaining employment.

The new unemployment rate for the state was much lower than the unemployment rate during the same month from the previous year. The DWS Communications Director, Kimberly Friedman, says that the state of Arkansas is finally starting to pick up where it left off during the Great Recession. There were nearly 6,000 more people employed during the month of January, which led to about 1,277,300 individuals in Arkansas being employed. These are numbers that have not been seen for the state since 2009, just when the recession as ending. While the recession ended in 2009, it left a huge scar on the economy which ended up causing people to lose their jobs and become unemployed.

There were several different industry sectors that experienced growth throughout the year. These sectors include healthcare, social assistance, and government related jobs. In fact, the healthcare sector seemed to do the best ,adding on about 3,700 available positions which enables more people to find a job, no longer having to deal with the burden of being unemployed. In the meantime, there was also an increase in jobs for other sectors, including leisure and hospitality. For that sector, there was a gain of about 2,400 job positions. A lot of the positions were related to food services. And, while there were some gains, there were also some losses. The manufacturing sector seemed to do poorly, with a decline of more than 4,000 jobs throughout the year. Many people were laid off as many companies were forced to close because they simply were not making enough. Nondurable goods seemed to have the worst time while durable goods manufacturing actually saw a slight incline on the number of jobs available.

Overall, the figures look fairly good for the state. After dealing with such troubling times, especially after the full force of the recession, the people of Arkansas finally have something to look forward. It is expected that the decrease in unemployment will continue to occur as more positions will be made available and more people will have an easier time finding the employment that they have been searching for.