by Michael Tilley (mtilley@talkbusiness.net)
The U.S. manufacturing sector has been soft in recent months, but Arkansas manufacturing job numbers are up more than 5% in the past two years. One sector advocate believes the job numbers would be higher if more people were in the workforce.
Manufacturing employment in Arkansas totaled 165,200 in July, up from 163,400 in July 2022 and above the 162,000 in the pre-pandemic July 2019. Manufacturing, once the state’s largest jobs sector, posted record employment of 247,600 in February 1995.
Among the three Arkansas metro areas with significant manufacturing activity, two have seen manufacturing job growth in the past five years. Manufacturing job numbers are up 6.3% in Northwest Arkansas during the past five years and up 9.3% in the Fort Smith metro. Manufacturing job numbers are down 6.5% in the Little Rock-North Little Rock metro in the past five years.
