Arkansas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7.3 percent in August, the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services announced Friday.
The state’s civilian labor force decreased 3,600, the department said, citing numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Reductions in both employment and unemployment made for a smaller civilian labor force. This collective combination of decreases produced no change in the unemployment rate,” said department spokesman Kimberly Friedman. “There are still 11,000 fewer unemployed Arkansans than in August 2011.”
The state has gained 9,600 nonfarm payroll jobs since August 2011, the department said, with the educational and health services sector adding the most jobs. Construction jobs took the biggest hit in that time.
Nationally, the unemployment rates rose in 26 of the 50 states, The Associated Press reported Friday.
The national unemployment rate dropped two-tenths of a percentage point to 8.1 percent in August as many gave up the job search.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.