by Michael Pakko | Oct 14, 2021
The annual data on state-level Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) were published last week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The data for Arkansas reaffirm our observation that Arkansas consumers maintained relatively high levels of spending during the depths...
by Michael Pakko | Sep 29, 2021
The latest report on metropolitan area employment shows ongoing improvement in Arkansas’ metro areas, with some recovering from the COVID-19 recession more rapidly than others. Five of the eight metro areas covering parts of Arkansas saw the unemployment rate...
by Michael Pakko | Sep 23, 2021
New data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that Arkansas Personal Income declined by 8.5% in the second quarter (an annualized rate of -29.8%). Nationwide, the second-quarter decrease in income was 6.0% (-21.8% annual rate). Income declines in the...
by Michael Pakko | Sep 21, 2021
Arkansas Retail Sales increased by 2.5% in June, remaining well above spending levels of a year earlier and well above pre-pandemic levels as well. Total Retail Trade and Food Service sales were up 13.0% from June 2020 and up 27.1% from the 2019:H2 average. The data...
by Michael Pakko | Sep 17, 2021
The state employment report for August had no real surprises, but was generally consistent with the ongoing trend of slowly improving labor market conditions as we emerge from the COVID-19 recession. Data associated with the BLS Household survey was comparatively...
