Fayetteville saw a 2-point surge in its rating in August to overtake Fort Smith for the top spot of Arkansas Tech University’s business index, which rates economic activity in the state.
Fort Smith, which dropped 1.23 points in August’s index, had been the top-rated city for five months. Fayetteville gained 2.17 points to come in at 106.48, just ahead of Fort Smith at 106.34.
The ATBI accounts for data from various categories, including the labor and housing markets, construction and retail sales. The index takes economic activity in 17 cities across the state and compares it to the state average from 2009 to present. The index is based around 100.
Little Rock enjoyed the biggest jump, 4.94 points, in August to 100.88. It’s the capital city’s first month above the state average. It’s previous high was 99.01 in May. Little Rock was catapulted by its construction index score, 172.76, in August.
Springdale (103.97), Van Buren (102.97) and Bentonville (102.63) followed behind Fayetteville and Fort Smith in the top five. Searcy (100.9), Little Rock, Conway (100.7) and Jonesboro (100.33) were also above the state average.
Fayetteville and Little Rock were the only cities to see improvement from July. Conway and Hot Springs (98.02) saw the largest declines, 4.22 points and 4.06 points, respectively. West Memphis, El Dorado and Rogers also saw drops of more than 3 points.
Pine Bluff was the lowest-rated city at 90.97.
In individual indices, Van Buren led the labor market with a 110.33 rating, Hot Springs led the housing and real estate index with a 109.48 rating, Little Rock led the construction index with a 172.76 rating and Fayetteville led retail at 119.73.
Below is a table that displays each city’s overall ATBI rating, in addition to ratings in individual index ratings.
Sign up for Daily E-news
