Simply getting a seat at the corporate table remains a barrier for women in the workforce, a panel of women business leaders said Thursday during the first Soirée Women's Leadership Symposium at the DoubleTree Hotel in Little Rock. read more >
Arkansas' unemployment rate in April was 3.6%, down one-tenth of a percentage point from the previous month. read more >
U.S. retail sales declined last month as Americans cut back their spending on clothes, appliances, and home and garden supplies. read more >
Newspapers are in a death spiral: More people are getting their news online, which would be fine if online advertising had similar value to print advertising. But it doesn’t, not even close. read more >
The U.S. Small Business Administration is taking steps to revitalize central Arkansas through a $500,000 award to the Conductor, an organization that partners with the University of Central Arkansas and Startup Junkie Consulting. read more >
Households in the top fifth of income spent more than five times as much as households in the bottom fifth, $18,190 compared with $3,497. read more >
U.S. long-term mortgage rates declined this week for a second straight week, reversing the upward trend in April as a lure to potential home buyers. read more >
Payroll provider ADP's monthly tally of small business hires showed companies added 77,000 jobs in April, a jump from an upwardly revised 20,000 in March. read more >
The unemployment rate in the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway metropolitan statistical area remains near a historical low, 3.5% in February. read more >
Deserve is not an economic concept; it’s a marketing concept. It’s a word that allows consumers to rationalize spending money on appealing nonessentials. read more >
Effective content’s objective is not to just grab attention, but to hold it. Grabbing alone doesn’t support the brand; it supports the ad. read more >
Ideas serve as the basis for every broad policy initiative, and Gov. Hutchinson’s reorganization plan that reduces the number of state agencies from 42 to 15 is no exception. read more >
U.S. employers added a robust 263,000 jobs in April, suggesting that businesses have shrugged off earlier concerns that the economy might slow this year and anticipate strong customer demand. read more >
An April survey of business supply managers suggests there will be solid economic growth over the next three to six months in nine Midwest and Plains states, although some survey category figures declined, a report said Wednesday. read more >
More Americans signed contracts to purchase homes in March compared to the prior month. read more >
American consumers are feeling more confident this month, though optimism hasn't fully recovered from a period of roiling markets and slowed hiring early this year. read more >
The Federal Reserve this week will likely reinforce a theme that has cheered consumers and investors since the start of the year: No interest rates hikes are likely anytime soon. read more >
The Arkansas Delta Council, a nonprofit economic development organization still in formation, hopes to raise money and entice investors to a region that has been losing population, unevenly but inexorably, for half a century. read more >
Two-thirds of Arkansas’ counties lost population between 2012 and 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. read more >
The Mueller Report persuades me that Russian interference was not a joint venture with the campaign. Instead, it was something incrementally less despicable: criminal activity against Americans and our democracy by a hostile foreign government that Donald Trump’s campaign knew about and welcomed. read more >
