Arkansas Tech Business Index

ATBI

Arkansas Tech Business Index

The ATBI shows the level of economic activity at a monthly level for each of 20 select Arkansas cities. Higher readings indicate stronger economic performance relative to lower readings. The index is based around 100. A city reading above 100 indicates that the city is currently doing better than the state average from 2009 to the present. Many cities above 100 indicate overall strong statewide performance relative to the recent past. The Index is a compilation of labor market data, real estate data, construction data, and retail sales. These four component indices are available for each city by clicking on the city name. We strive to collect and communicate data in a way that allows you to analyze statewide performance. The full ATBI database is available for download below.

Performance Data

NOTE: Each month when new data is available, we rerun the ATBI model. Therefore, in general we should not expect the October reading in this December ATBI release to exactly match the October reading in the October ATBI. While the underlying data for October has not changed, the baseline has shifted, and therefore the October index values have changed.

January 2020

This measures the values of the Arkansas Tech Business Index for the month of January, with respect to past monthly values after having gone through a regression for the current month. In the change from proceeding months columns, it shows how much of an increase or decrease of the Arkansas Tech Business Index for its … » Learn More about January 2020

4th Quarter 2019

This measures the values of the Arkansas Tech Business Index for the current quarter, with respect to past quarter values after having gone through a regression for the current month. These values for the quarters are calculated by taking the Arkansas Tech Business Index values for each month in a quarter, and then averaging them. … » Learn More about 4th Quarter 2019

Year 2019

This measures the values of the Arkansas Tech Business Index for the current year, with respect to past yearly values after having gone through a regression for the current month. These values for the year are calculated by taking the Arkansas Tech Business Index values for each month in a year, and then averaging them. … » Learn More about Year 2019

1st Quarter Insights

March was a challenging month for the Arkansas economy. While there were some bright spots, such as housing (2734 units sold statewide with an average sale price of $163,285), residential construction permits ($71 million), and an unemployment rate of 4%, the overall index values were down for the quarter. Every city had a lower index in March compared to December and 12 of the 19 cities had index values below 100 for the first quarter.

On top of the index for the quarter is Rogers being helped by a strong March. Rogers had a 106.85 for the quarter and a 109.06 for March. Rogers was one of only two cities that increased from February to March with a rise of 3.63 points. Rogers was above par in all four sectors and above 110 in three of the four. Their weakest sector was labor, at 102.39 because their labor force grew by only about 100 workers. Their strongest component was eight commercial construction permits totaling $22.6 million over half of which is the Primrose Retirement Community totaling $12.9 million. All of this adds up to a commercial construction component index of 119.5.

Hardest hit for the quarter was Fort Smith with a decline of 3.97 points falling from 105.05 in December to 101.08 in March. Fort Smith’s best sector was most responsible for its decline. Retail was a huge 131 in the strength fo the holiday shopping in December but fell to a still large 119 in March. Construction and Labor also contributed to the decline as commercial construction permits fell from $53.6 million in the fourth quarter to$1.9 million in the first quarter.