The Northwest Arkansas metro again led job growth in Arkansas during April, with jobs in the region that is home to Walmart, Tyson Foods, and J.B. Hunt Transport up more than 2% year over year. April jobless rates were up in four of the seven metro areas in or connected to Arkansas.
The April jobs report for U.S. metro areas, posted Wednesday (June 3) by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), shows that Northwest Arkansas had the lowest jobless rate at 2.7%, and the Memphis/West Memphis metro had the highest rate at 4.1%.
Central Arkansas – Little Rock, North Little Rock and Conway – had 395,300 nonfarm jobs in April, unchanged compared with April 2025. The metro had 13,837 unemployed, up 7.3% from 12,981 in April 2025. The region set a nonfarm jobs record of 397,400 in December 2025…