Fort Smith and North Little Rock made significant moves forward in October 2015 amidst an otherwise sluggish month for the 18 municipalities tracked by the Arkansas Tech Business Index, a project created by the Arkansas Tech University College of Business and sponsored by Arvest Bank.
Fort Smith’s ATBI rating increased by 3.75 points during October 2015, while North Little Rock saw its ATBI rating advance 1.92 points.
Springdale (+0.87 points), Jonesboro (+0.58 points) Searcy (+0.50 points) and Fayetteville (+0.36 points) were the other towns that increased their ATBI rating in October 2015.
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.
Bentonville is atop the ATBI for the fifth time in the last six months and the seventh time in the 22-month history of the index. It finished October 2015 with a rating of 106.36.
Fayetteville (2nd, 106.20), Springdale (3rd, 104.86), Rogers (4th, 104.47), Fort Smith (5th, 104.20) and Conway (6th, 100.99) also completed October 2015 with an ATBI rating above 100.
Mountain Home (7th, 99.92), Hot Springs (8th, 99.84), Van Buren (9th, 99.01), North Little Rock (10th, 98.28), Searcy (11th, 98.25), Russellville (12th, 98.16), Jonesboro (13th, 97.65), El Dorado (14th, 96.59), West Memphis (15th, 96.53), Texarkana (16th, 95.90), Little Rock (17th, 95.35) and Pine Bluff (18th, 92.45) complete the ATBI for October 2015.
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.
