Eighteen of the 20 cities on the Arkansas Tech Business Index saw their rating increase following the compilation of data for May 2016.
May marked a bounce back month for the municipalities tracked by the ATBI, a project created by the Arkansas Tech University College of Business and sponsored by Arvest Bank. Just one month earlier, 15 of the 20 cities on the index experienced a rating decrease.
Bentonville (1st, 107.02), Rogers (2nd, 104.71), North Little Rock (3rd, 104.02), Fayetteville (4th, 102.42), Mountain Home (5th, 101.16), Hot Springs (6th, 100.96), Springdale (7th, 100.93) and Benton (8th, 100.85) all finished May 2016 with an ATBI rating of above 100.
The Arkansas Tech Business Index is a comprehensive measure that provides a snapshot of economic activity around the Natural State. It encompasses a labor index, housing market index, construction index and retail sales index. The index is based around 100. A city rating above 100 indicates that the city is currently doing better than the state average from 2009 to the present.
Jonesboro (9th, 98.72), Conway (10th, 98.59), Searcy (11th, 97.89), Van Buren (12th, 97.29), Fort Smith (13th, 97.28), West Memphis (14th, 97.00), Russellville (15th, 96.98), El Dorado (16th, 96.90), Paragould (17th, 96.39), Texarkana (18th, 95.34), Pine Bluff (19th, 93.40) and Little Rock (20th, 92.24) completed the ATBI for May 2016.
Rogers (+3.18 points), Little Rock (+2.92 points), Benton (+2.78 points), Fort Smith (+2.68 points), Jonesboro (+2.35 points) and North Little Rock (+2.33 points) achieved the largest ATBI rating increases during the fifth month of 2016.
Dr. Marc Fusaro, associate professor of economics at Arkansas Tech, is the developer of the Arkansas Tech Business Index.
Visit www.atu.edu/atbi to access the data used to develop the ATBI.
