The city of Fayetteville has returned to the top spot of the Arkansas Tech Business Index.
The Washington County city received the highest rating for month of November, according to data to compiled by Arkansas Tech University. It’s the second time Fayetteville has been on top; Fayetteville also led the index in August.
“Fayetteville saw advances in the labor market, construction permits and retail,” Marc Fusaro, the associate professor of economics who developed index, said in a news release. “The 5-point increase in the construction index was led by a 9.5-point increase in the commercial construction permit index, which increased from $6.5 million in October to $9 million in November. Sales tax is especially strong with an index value of 117.48.”
For the month of November 2014, Fayetteville had an index rating of 106.16. The index, which measures labor, the housing market, construction and retail sales, is applied to 17 municipalities to provide a snapshot of economic activity throughout the state.
The index is based around 100. A reading above 100 indicates that the city is doing better than the state average from 2009 to the present.
Fort Smith, which had the highest index rating for seven of the first 10 months in 2014, finished second in November with a rating of 105.58.
Other cities ahead of the state average include:
- Rogers (3rd, 105.38)
- Conway (4th, 103.61)
- Van Buren (5th, 103.34)
- Springdale (6th, 103.04)
- Bentonville (7th, 102.98)
- Searcy (8th, 102.84)
- Jonesboro (9th, 101.08)
- Hot Springs (10th, 100.41)
Cities below the state average:
- Russellville (11th, 98.78)
- Little Rock (12th, 96.70)
- Texarkana (13th, 96.29)
- El Dorado (14th, 96.06)
- West Memphis (15th, 95.22)
- North Little Rock (16th, 95.04)
- Pine Bluff (17th, 93.39)
The report said Texarkana had an index-best rating increase of 2.11 points from October to November. In all, nine of the 17 municipalities on the ATBI saw their rating increase for November.
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