Pine Bluff’s unemployment rate rose for a second consecutive month, according to the most figures released by the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services.
The jobless rate grew from 5.4 percent in November 2016 to 5.7 percent in December 2016 and to 6.1 percent in January 2017, according to the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services. Pine Bluff recorded the third highest unemployment rate in January 2017 among 18 cities measured by the department, topping Blytheville at 6.7 percent and El Dorado at 6.6 percent.
Lou Ann Nisbett, president and CEO of the Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County, is not associated with the compiling of the report but thinks that Pine Bluff’s unemployment rate’s recent rise may have been because the construction at Highland Pellets had been completed.
“That is the only thing I can think of,” Nisbett said. “Many of the industries have job openings.”
Her colleagues and she have taken surveys of employers and learned they need people skilled in welding and industrial mechanical maintenance.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“They cannot afford for equipment to fail,” Nisbett said. “These companies need people who can put equipment back together. We need welders. We reach the schools to inform students what kinds of jobs are available. We need engineers in Jefferson County.”
Nisbett has been in her current post for nearly 11 years. She recalled Pine Bluff used to have a jobless rate of more than 10 percent during much of the last decade.
“I am still elated that our unemployment numbers are as low as they are,” Nisbett said. “As an economic developer, you can see we have an available workforce here. Any unemployment number below four percent means it is harder to find a labor force.”
Highland Pellets has filled 73 manufacturing jobs and Energy Security Partners is planning to build a natural-gas-to-liquid-fuel plant, which will necessitate a growth in construction jobs.
Summit Poultry is paying an overdue debt to Pine Bluff Wastewater Utility and is supposed to generate 107 jobs, Nisbett said. Summit is waiting on United States Department of Agriculture inspectors to arrive so it can begin operations, she said.