Eighteen of the 20 cities on the Arkansas Tech Business Index saw their rating increase following the compilation of data for May 2016. Just one month earlier, 15 of the 20 cities on the index experienced a rating decrease.
The ATBI is a project created by the Arkansas Tech University College of Business.
Bentonville (107.02), Rogers (104.71), North Little Rock (104.02), Fayetteville (102.42), Mountain Home (101.16), Hot Springs (100.96), Springdale (100.93) and Benton (100.85) all finished May with an ATBI rating of above 100.
The ATBI is a comprehensive measure that provides a snapshot of economic activity encompassing a labor index, housing market index, construction index and retail sales index. A city rating above 100 indicates that the city is currently doing better than the state average from 2009 to the present.
Jonesboro (98.72), Conway (98.59), Searcy (97.89), Van Buren (97.29), Fort Smith (97.28), West Memphis (97.00), Russellville (96.98), El Dorado (96.90), Paragould (96.39), Texarkana (95.34), Pine Bluff (93.40) and Little Rock (92.24) completed the ATBI for May 2016.
Rogers (+3.18 points), Little Rock (+2.92 points), Benton (+2.78 points), Fort Smith (+2.68 points), Jonesboro (+2.35 points) and North Little Rock (+2.33 points) achieved the largest ATBI rating increases in May.
Marc Fusaro, associate professor of economics at Arkansas Tech, is the developer of the ATBI.