Michael Tilley/ Talk Business & Politics

Total Arkansas tax revenue in the first fiscal quarter was $2.057 billion, down 1.1% compared with the same period of 2022, but 6.9% above the forecast.

A year-over-year gain of more than 21,000 jobs and an almost 20% drop in the number of unemployed pushed Arkansas’ June jobless rate to a new record low of 2.6%.

Despite the large surplus, recent federal data suggests Arkansas’ economy may not be as robust in the back half of 2023.

The national museum, located near the Arkansas River in downtown Fort Smith, could draw as many as 125,000 visitors in the first full year.

A slight percentage increase in the number of employed compared with the number of jobless helped push Arkansas’ February unemployment rate to 3.2%.

The Department of Finance and Administration reported nearly 3,000 fully-electric vehicles were registered at the end of last month. The number of hybrid vehicles grew to about 27-thousand.

Arkansas Republicans praised a likely U.S. Supreme Court decision ending abortion rights while decrying the leak of the court’s draft opinion.

Traffic on the river is up compared to last year, and one port operator says could have been even more robust if shippers had access to more barges.

The federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) has put the first significant funding into a decades-long effort to deepen the Arkansas River navigation channel to 12-feet.

All eight metro areas posted jobless rate declines in December compared with December 2020, with northwest Arkansas and Jonesboro posting the lowest rates, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.