Teachers and other staff members returning to schools helped lower the state's September unemployment rate to 7.3%, snipping off one-tenth of a percentage point from August.
The Arkansas Division of Workforce Services announced Tuesday that nonfarm payroll jobs increased by 13,200 in September as government added 8,700 jobs.
Nationally, unemployment was 7.9% in September.
The state jobless rate has shown incremental improvement since spiking to 10.8% in April, the first full month of the covid-19 pandemic. Total payroll employment in April fell to 1.16 million and has steadily climbed since then.
"That's a slow downward trend that I hope will continue," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Tuesday, addressing the September unemployment rate as he began his daily covid-19 news conference.
Total payroll employment in September was 1.23 million. August payroll employment was 1.21 million.
Through small improvements, unemployment is moving in the right direction, according to Commerce Secretary Mike Preston.
"This year has been challenging for so many, but our unemployment rate continues to demonstrate that, little by little, Arkansas is putting people back to work," Preston said. "We still have a long way to go, but we remain committed to doing whatever we can to help Arkansans through this pandemic."
Month-to-month increases since the spring seem to be leveling out, according to Michael Pakko, an economist with the Institute of Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
"It appears that we've reached something of a plateau in the labor market," Pakko said Tuesday. "We've slowed to a more sustainable pace, but we're not running out of room for growth. It just seems like the advancement to full employment does not have the momentum that showed in June and July."
Over the past year, the state has lost 46,800 jobs across most major employment sectors. The leisure and hospitality sector along with manufacturing have been hit the hardest.
Arkansas' unemployment rate was 3.6% in September 2019.
Employment is down by 17,000 in leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing has dropped 16,000 jobs since September 2019, the monthly job report shows.
Government has seen 7,900 job losses, and educational and health services dropped 6,800 jobs.
Last month, the educational and health services sector added 5,100 jobs and manufacturing added 1,200 jobs.
Job gains in manufacturing were encouraging, Pakko said. "It looks like we've moved off the bottom end of the downturn in manufacturing," he added.
Leisure and hospitality -- an industry that has been ravaged by the pandemic -- dropped 700 jobs from August. Trade, transportation and utilities lost 900 jobs from month to month; the sector, however, has added 6,400 jobs compared with a year ago.
Tuesday's report shows that Arkansas' civilian labor force decreased by 7,717, a result of 5,391 fewer employed and 2,326 fewer unemployed Arkansans.
"Employment and unemployment both declined slightly, as Arkansans continue to move in and out of the labor force," said Susan Price, an operations manager with the Bureau of Labor Statistics who monitors the state statistics.
On Friday, the state is scheduled to begin making supplemental insurance benefit payments to workers who were unemployed the weeks of Aug. 22, Aug. 29 and Sept. 5 because of the pandemic. Those workers who are eligible will receive an extra $300 benefit for each of the three weeks through the federal Lost Wages Assistance program, Alisha Curtis of the Commerce Department said Tuesday.
To be eligible for the payment, claimants must have received unemployment benefits with a weekly benefit amount of $100 or more and must self-certify that they lost their jobs because of covid-19. Those claimants must self-certify through the Division of Workforce Services website by Thursday.