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Fort Smith Keeps Top Spot in Arkansas Tech Business Index

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Fort Smith retained the top spot in the latest Arkansas Tech Business Index, released Wednesday.

Despite dropping 2.27 points from the previous month, Fort Smith again was the top city in the index with a rating of 104.98. It has led the index in 10 of the 14 months Tech has produced the ATBI.

The ATBI is a comprehensive economic ranking produced by the ATU College of Business that provides a snapshot of economic activity in Arkansas. It encompasses a labor index, housing market index, construction index and retail sales index.

The index is based around 100 with a rating above 100 indicating that a city currently is doing better than the state average from 2009 to the present. The latest ratings represent data from February.

Eight cities currently have ratings over 100: Fort Smith, Springdale, Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers, Conway, Hot Springs and Mountain Home.

Four of the 18 cities measured by the index saw slight increases in February: Conway, El Dorado, Jonesboro and Searcy.  

The full listing for February:

  1. Fort Smith, 104.98
  2. Springdale, 104.41
  3. Bentonville, 103.95
  4. Fayetteville, 103.67
  5. Rogers, 103.23
  6. Conway, 102.36
  7. Hot Springs, 101.40
  8. Mountain Home, 100.03
  9. Van Buren, 99.95
  10. Jonesboro, 99.62
  11. Russellville, 99.42
  12. Searcy, 99.06
  13. El Dorado, 96.81
  14. North Little Rock, 96.74
  15. West Memphis, 95.88
  16. Texarkana, 95.51
  17. Little Rock, 94.81
  18. Pine Bluff, 94.00

“This weakness in February is in line with the national economy, which was similarly weak in the second quarter growing only 0.2 percent in the first quarter,” said Marc Fusaro, associate professor of economics at ATU, who developed and oversees the index.

More information on the index, sponsored by Arvest Bank, is available here.

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