Region Still Trying to Add Jobs

By Ron Wood

Posted: November 2, 2011 at 2:22 p.m.

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Northwest Arkansas is still struggling to recover jobs lost during the recession even though the unemployment rate for the metro area was slightly lower in September than in August.

“That was a very seasonal effect. I prefer to look year-over-year,” said Kathy Deck, director for the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas. “And, we see that unemployment is still a little higher than it was this time last year. That’s been the trend here in Northwest Arkansas for several months in a row.”

The unemployment rate in the Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers and Southwest Missouri metropolitan area was 6.3 percent in September, up from 6.1 percent a year ago, according to preliminary employment data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The number of unemployed people, 14,300, was also higher than a year ago. The civilian labor force was 227,300, down slightly from 228,529 a year ago. About 213,000 people were employed in the metro area in September, compared to 214,549 a year ago.

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