July 2016 results on the Arkansas Tech Business Index show that the number of cities increasing their rating was matched evenly by the number of municipalities that experienced a rating decrease during the seventh month of the year.
Leading the 10 advancers on the ATBI, a project created by the Arkansas Tech University College of Business and sponsored by Arvest Bank, was Bentonville. The Benton County community finished July 2016 atop the index with a rating of 109.62, a 2.41 points increase over June 2016.
It marked the fourth consecutive month that Bentonville earned the highest ATBI rating among the 20 cities on the index.
Other cities that experienced a rating increase of one point or greater in July 2016 included Russellville (+1.61 points), Van Buren (+1.31 points), Conway (+1.10 points) and Pine Bluff (+1.10 points).
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.
Rogers (2nd, 104.24), Fayetteville (T-3rd, 101.69), North Little Rock (T-3rd, 101.69), Springdale (5th, 101.33), Mountain Home (6th, 100.35) and Hot Springs (7th, 100.18) joined Bentonville with an ATBI rating of above 100 for July 2016.
Benton (8th, 99.74), Searcy (9th, 98.80), Russellville (10th, 98.60), Conway (11th, 98.57), Fort Smith (12th, 98.47), Jonesboro (13th, 98.26), Van Buren (14th, 97.73), El Dorado (15th, 97.12), West Memphis (16th, 97.03), Paragould (17th, 96.52), Texarkana (18th, 95.07), Pine Bluff (19th, 93.94) and Little Rock (20th, 88.04) completed the July 2016 ATBI.
Visit www.atu.edu/atbi to access the data used to develop the ATBI.
