For 4th straight month, the unemployment rate in Arkansas remains stable

Pine Bluff, Arkansas – The unemployment rate in Arkansas remains stable the June report shows.

The unemployment rate in the state in June was 4.4%, which is almost the same as previous months despite state officials’ effort to lower the rate.

The Arkansas civilian labor force declined 250, a result of 750 fewer employed and 500 more unemployed Arkansans.

Country’s average unemployment rate in June was 5.9 which is slight increase from May when the rate was 5.8%.

Susan Price, Bureau of Labor Statistics program operations manager, said that Arkansas is trending lower compared to the country’s average and year-to-year to 2020, just months after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Arkansas’ unemployment rate remained stable at 4.4 percent for the third consecutive month,” Price said. “Arkansas unemployment rate is currently three and four-tenths of a percentage point lower than in June 2020 and is well below the US rate.

The strongest increase in employment was seen in the leisure and hospitality sector which is common for the spring and summer months. These two sectors added more than 14,000 in the last months, latest data shows.

Professional and business services and manufacturing sectors are also doing well with decent increase in employment since Spring months.