Last week revealed economic highlights, trends, and expectations for Northwest Arkansas's economy with the annual business forecast and January report of sales tax revenue for the region.

• Annual Forecast: Since inflation is at its highest rate since the 1980s, Arkansas saw prices go up across the board in 2021 and is expecting continued pressure in the supply chain. Despite this, because of the big businesses and entrepreneurial support in Northwest Arkansas, the region added 13,000 jobs in 2021 and was the only region to have more jobs than it did pre-Covid in 2019.
• Signs of the times: Separately, sales tax revenue in the January report for the Big 4 cities in NWA totaled $7.85mm, up 11.69% when compared to a year ago and up 35% from the pre-Covid period of January 2019.

Catch up on the state of economic affairs HERE.