Towns Show Job Growth

It’s a well-known fact Northwest Arkansas is growing.

What may be surprising is the amount of growth coming from Springdale.

“Northwest Arkansas has been the job creation engine of the state, and we’ve been the job creation engine for the area,” said Bill Rogers, vice president for communications and special projects at the Springdale Chamber of Commerce.

There were 12,639 new jobs added in Northwest Arkansas’ four biggest towns between December 2010 and December 2012, according to information on the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services’ website. Half those jobs, or 6,380, are in Springdale.

The state overall saw employment drop by 4,100 jobs between December 2010 and December 2012.

Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas, said it is interesting to see how many of the state’s big cities had declines over the same time period.

Losing jobs in that two-year time span were Fort Smith with 3,413, Hot Springs with 1,650 and North Little Rock with 1,162.

“This is certainly why the state’s recovery isn’t stronger,” Deck said.

Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse said the job growth is a good sign the economy is continuing to improve. He said there is still room to grow.

“There are still a lot of questions on the overall economy. We are hopeful those decisions made outside our control will push the economy in the right direction,” he said.

Mike Harvey, chief operating officer of the Northwest Arkansas Council, said it is not surprising to see so much job growth in Northwest Arkansas because of the explosive population growth over the past 20 years.

Population in the two-county area grew from 210,908 in 1990 to 435,077 in 2011, according to the United States Census Bureau.

“To move here for the economic opportunity is one thing, but to stay is another,” Harvey said. “You don’t double your population if you are a crummy place to live.”

Springdale is evolving. Voters approved a $71 million bond issue Aug. 15 that will pay for street and park improvements.

“No city stands still,” Rogers said. “We’re helping mold our future image.”

The job growth in Springdale was spread between all job areas from manufacturing to hospitality, said Lance Eads, vice president of economic development for the Springdale chamber.

“We have always bucked the national manufacturing trend of declining employment,” he said. “But we like to see growth across the board so we are not reliant on just one area.”

One Springdale manufacturer that grew last year is Dixie-Southern. The custom steel fabrication company opened at the former home of Shiloh Steel Fabricators in August 2011.

When the company opened, it employed six people and hoped to reach 50 by the end of three years.

Stan Kinnett, president and chief executive officer of the Bradenton, Fla.-based company, said the factory has 30 employees.

“We had a really good first year. We’re about a year ahead of where we thought we would be,” Kinnett said.

The company’s goal is still to reach 50 workers, and Kinnett said they are patiently headed to that number.

Springdale also is home to NanoMech’s manufacturing plant. The nanomanufacturing, or the science of manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale, company is growing.

NanoMech was formed in 2002 and announced a partnership with Houston manufacturing company Cameron last summer. Company officials predict it will create 10 to 20 jobs at the Springdale plant. About 25 people work for the company.

Bentonville also had a big increase in employee numbers over the two-year period.

Tom Ginn, vice president of economic development for the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce, said a lot of growth has come in hospitality and technology areas.

Many restaurants and hotels have started business following the Nov. 11, 2011, opening of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

“Most of those jobs are not high-paying jobs, but they are jobs,” Ginn said.

Many of the technology-based jobs are connected to the retail world through Walmart and its suppliers.

Steve Cox, vice president of economic development for the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce, said it is important to look at the quality and pay of new jobs and not just shear volume.

“It’s great to have high job numbers, but we have to ask is our average wage increasing? That’s what matters,” Cox said.

Chung Tan, director of economic development for the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, said she is happy with the city’s job growth rate.

“We prefer slow, sustainable and manageable growth,” she said. “We are very pleased with the diversification we have.”