Official: Northwest Arkansas Draws Younger Workers

SPRINGDALE -- Northwest Arkansas employs more than its share of young workers, a healthy sign for the local economy's future, the director of the Northwest Arkansas Council said Thursday.

"We have the 10th highest concentration of millennials in the work force of any MSA in the country," said Mike Malone, referring to the 381 "Metropolitan Statistical Areas" as defined by the federal government. More than 30 percent of the workers in Northwest Arkansas are between the ages of 22 and 34, he said, citing U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics. This is comparable to dynamic, technology-based growth areas such as Austin, Texas, he said.

Malone gave the luncheon speech to about 300 people attending a conference of the Northwest Arkansas Human Resources Association, a group of hiring, recruitment and employment professionals. The group met at the Springdale Holiday Inn and Convention Center. Malone works for the council, which is a group of business, community and political leaders who cooperate on regional issues.

Northwest Arkansas' relatively youthful work force developed while the national trend is toward an aging work force, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. The January study, also based on labor bureau statistics, found that older Americans are working longer. That fact combined with the sheer number of baby boomers group leads to an aging work force, the study found.

Taking questions from the audience, Malone was asked what progress was happening in improving the region's public transportation. He said the council faces a challenge in the makeup of the area. Most Metropolitan Statistical Areas have a large core city with surrounding smaller communities. Northwest Arkansas has four larger communities on roughly equal footing spread in a line from north to south.

"It's much easier to expand a public transit system when people are going to a central point and back out from there," he said. "That's not what we have here."

Northwest Arkansas' lack of one central city is rare, Malone said.

"In recruiting talent, it's an advantage," he said. "We're not just selling one town."

In another transportation issue, adding walking trails throughout the region has proven to be far more of a draw to economic development than he expected, Malone said.

"We've had businesses say that they gave us a look because of our trail system," he said.