Arkansas’ unemployment rate rose to 7.3 percent in May from 7.2 percent in April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.
The state’s unemployment rate has not moved significantly in months. It has wavered between 7.1 percent and 7.4 percent since January 2012.
“Statistically, those are not any different,” said Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. “We’ve really been stuck. Weneed something to jump-start us.”
For the second straight month, the number of employed in the state increased, by 600 compared with April. The labor force also grew for the second straight month, by 2,400 compared with April.
“The labor force had been declining pretty rapidly [for months] along with employment,” said Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. “Those are positive indications, but the bad news is that we alsosaw the number of unemployed up about 1,800.”
April’s unemployment rate in Arkansas was revised upward from the originally reported 7.1 percent to 7.2 percent. In the revision, the federal agency found about 15 more unemployed Arkansans in April, enough to round the rate to 7.2 percent, Pakko said.
The national unemployment rate was 7.6 percent in May, up from 7.5 percent in April.
Arkansas’ unemployment rate has basically converged with the national rate, Decksaid, when for months it was better than the country’s.
In the United States, most private sectors have more jobs than they did a year ago.
“In Arkansas, that is not at all the case,” Deck said. “In order for Arkansas to participate in the recovery going on nationally, more of our sectors need to be firing on all cylinders.”
Nine of the 11 industry sectors in the state have seen job declines in the past year.
The worst declines were in “other services,” which has lost 2,300 jobs since May 2012, and in construction, which is down 2,000 jobs in the past year.
“Construction has been one area where I’ve been expecting to see some recovery eventually, but we’re waitingon better performances in the real estate market before construction will start picking up,” Pakko said.
Since the end of the recession in June 2009, the construction sector has experienced a loss of 3,300 jobs.
That is the largest drop in state construction jobs in 12 national recoveries dating back to October 1945, said Greg Kaza, executive director of the Arkansas Policy Foundation, a conservative research and advocacy organization in Little Rock.
The loss of construction jobs in Arkansas after a recession is unusual, Kaza said.
In only one other recovery - July 1980 to July 1981 - has the construction sector experienced a job loss.
“The average gain [since the end of World War II] in Arkansas construction at the 48-month stage was 5,660 [jobs],” Kaza said.
If construction were growing at a pace similar to other recoveries, Arkansas’ unemployment rate would be less than 7 percent, Kaza said.
The only sectors showing yearly job growth were the trade, transportation and utilities sector, which has added 12,400 jobs, and the educational and health services sector, which has grown by 1,600 jobs in the past year.
Most of the growth in the trade, transportation and utilities sector has been retail trade, which has accounted for 9,700 of the 12,400 jobs added.
Pakko’s most recent forecast for annual nonfarm payroll employment growth is 11,000 jobs by the end of the year.
“The May report showed year-over-year growth of only about 3,000 [jobs],” Pakko said. “So, generally, payroll employment growth is running a bit below the expectations built into my forecast.”
Business, Pages 27 on 06/22/2013