How the state is recovering from the pandemic’s economic impact

It’s not easy to recover from a pandemic and a recession, much less a pandemic that seemingly won’t go away and keeps undermining efforts to rebuild Central Arkansas’ economic base.

That’s the picture painted by a new study from Metroplan, which says the area appears to be “climbing out at last” from the economic destruction the coronavirus has caused over the past 18 months.

Yet the evidence is uneven.

“Some aspects of economic life are returning to normal, while others have shifted permanently,” the report says. “It is too early to measure the lasting change but there are hints.”

The Metroplan report examines economic conditions in the agency’s planning area, which includes Pulaski, Faulkner, Saline, Lonoke and Grant counties.

Here are other key findings from the report:

■ As employees continue to work from home, office vacancies in the Little Rock metro area are expected to increase as leasing contracts end.

■ Total jobs in early 2021 were about 4.9% lower than last year.

■ Area labor force declined during the pandemic by nearly 6,000 jobs (-1.6%) and has not fully recovered.

■ The finance and construction sectors have added jobs but other sectors such as manufacturing, professional/business services, information, transportation and utilities have suffered aboveaverage losses.

■ Single-family housing construction starts in 2020 were the highest since 2007, with Conway leading the way with a 27% year-over-year increase.

■ Total regional construction value was $1.1 billion in 2020 though total “unofficial” construction value may have reached $1.5 billion when including the Amazon distribution center in the Little Rock Port.

The report also boasted about Little Rock as a financial technology hub supported by the work of the Little Rock Venture Center, which has established a global reputation as an entrepreneurial support organization.

The Venture Center brings valuable attention to Little Rock and the region through its two primary accelerator programs that support the development of fintechs and community banking efforts nationwide, according to the report.

BACK TO WORK

The Arkansas District Export Council is back from a summer break and is holding a back-to-school webinar Wednesday on supply chain risk management.

The webinar, beginning at 2 p.m., will provide recommendations on how supply chains should be adapting in the pandemic economy. Officials with the council and Resilinic, a leader in supply chain management issues, will lead the session.

Participants will learn more about the current state of the nation’s supply chain and lessons learned during the pandemic and will get information about technologybased supply chain monitoring and mapping.

For more information and to register go to exportarkansas.org.

PROMOTING DIVERSITY

Promoting and encouraging diversity in the entrepreneurial community has taken on new momentum during the pandemic and the Little Rock Venture Center is holding a noon event Friday to enhance the effort.

The entrepreneurial support organization is holding a virtual panel discussion with business leaders and owners in the state to discuss one of the most important places progress on diversity can happen: in the workplace.

The diversity, equity and inclusion lunch and learn session will include Jane Kim, a partner at the Wright, Lindsey & Jennings law firm; Esperanza Massana-Crane, head of minority- and women-owned enterprise at the Arkansas Economic Development Commission; Flo Bruzatori, owner of Buenos Aires Grill & Cafe in Little Rock; and Pamela Reed, who leads inclusion and diversity efforts for the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center.

The four women will discuss the opportunities and challenges of implementing effective diversity initiatives.

For more information or to register go to venturecenter.co.

FAYETTEVILLE ACQUISITION

SupplyPike, a Fayettevillebased software company servicing Walmart vendors, is expanding its resource across multiple business channels with the acquisition of Supplier Community.

Supplier Community provides a platform for businesses to educate suppliers and retailers. It produces content such as webinars, conferences and one-on-one consultations to help suppliers and retailers.

SupplyPike plans to roll up the assets of Supplier Community into SupplyPike’s free online knowledge base known as SupplierWiki, which provides articles on supply chain and retail topics, ebooks, workshops and industry news items.

“Supplier Community has been an industry leader in the supplier education space for years, and now combined with SupplyPike’s technology, we know that we can bring value to suppliers like never before,” said Melodie Terry, SupplyPike’s vice president of marketing.

SupplyPike is a supply chain company that delivers artificial intelligence-driven software to suppliers of all sizes.

SAVINGS SURPRISE

When the pandemic began nearly 18 months ago, most Americans were just hopeful to hang on, at best, to the savings they had as job losses mounted, a recession began and there was no clear path out of the health and economic crisis.

During the pandemic, many families have been financially distressed and have struggled to pay for rent, groceries and utilities — all necessities.

It’s a bit surprising, then, that the Federal Reserve Bank now reports one of the economic oddities — a positive one — to come out of the coronavirus economy. Personal savings have increased as the pandemic continues to ravage the nation.

From the end of the great recession in 2009 to February 2020, the personal saving rate averaged 7.25%.

Since the start of the pandemic, however, it’s averaged 17.9%.

The Fed cites three key factors contributing to the increase: stimulus payments, inability of consumers to spend as businesses shut down and consumers practicing precautionary saving during the economic crisis.

Personal savings are defined as income left over after people spend money and pay taxes.

The personal savings rate is the percentage of disposable personal income for consumers.

Column ideas or recommendations? Thoughts or musings that need pursuing? Contact me at amoreau@adgnewsroom.com or at (501) 378-3567.