Data released from the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services this week showed that the March unemployment rate for Pine Bluff was 10.9 percent, down from a rate of 12 percent in February and 12.1 percent in January.
For Jefferson County as a whole the March rate came in at 9.5 percent, down from 10.5 percent in February and 10.6 percent in January.
The highest unemployment rate in the state of Arkansas for the month of March continued to be West Memphis at 12.2 percent, down from 13.6 percent in February, and the lowest rate was again found in Sherwood at 5 percent. Sherwood had tied with Bentonville in February for the lowest rate in the state at 5.9 percent.
The state unemployment rate for March came in at 7.4 percent, a two-tenths of a percentage point drop from the February number of 7.6 percent.
“Arkansas’ unemployment rate continues to show signs of improvement,” ADWS communications director Kimberly Friedman said in a news release. “The last time we experienced a rate of 7.4 percent was in June 2009. Additionally, March was the eighth consecutive month of employment growth.”