The Bureau of Labor Statistics has issued its fourth quarter 2008 report on employment and wages. Arkansas suffered along with the rest of the country. Here’s the report.
Some tidbits: The number of jobs dropped in the state’s three largest counties — Pulaski, Washington, Benton — as it did in most U.S. counties, but the drop was smallest, 1.2 percent, in Pulaski. Nationally, the employment number dropped 2.3 percent.
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There was this anomaly, though, on wages. Benton County may have had a bigger percentage drop in jobs, but average wages increased 6.3 percent, the 15th-highest county rate of improvement in the country. Conversely, wages in Pulaski, which led the country a year ago, ranked last with a 14.3 percent drop.