Northwest Arkansas has seen thousands of job gains since December of last year and was 1 of the 2 metro areas around the state that had a jobless rate under 2%.

• On the up and up: Across the state, there was a total of 19,083 job gains in the 3 regions recorded for December 2021. NWA had an estimated nearly 294K jobs at the end of last year, up nearly 13K from 2020. In comparison, Central Arkansas had over 340K employed in December.
• Back to work: NWA is at a low rate of 1.6% for jobless claims as of December 2021, which is 4,854 unemployed compared to 10K in 2020. 

Read the full Talk Business & Politics story HERE.