In a report on the website, The City Wire, Nearly 4,800 Arkansas citizens did not have jobs in the month of October.  With that, the state’s unemployment mark climbed to 7.2 percent.


October is the 45^th month in a row that the state’s unemployment mark has stayed north of 7 percent.  October’s figure jumped .1 percent from 7.1 in September.  On the other hand, the 7.2 is .9 percent less than it was last October.


1.273 million Arkansas citizens had jobs in October.  That number is a 10,255 bump from last October, says the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.


The department exhibits, however, that 4,739 less citizens had jobs in October compared to September, with the jobless number at 98,253, 60 people less than in September.


Over the last two years, October saw a significant bump from September.  There were 4,327 more roles from October to September in 2011 and 1,311 from October to September in 2010.


“Arkansas’ unemployment rate rose slightly this month, as employment declined 4,700. There are still 10,300 more employed and 11,000 fewer unemployed Arkansans than in October 2011,” Kimberly Friedman, communications director for the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services, said in a statement.


In the state’s trade, transportation and utilities division, the largest one, employment was up 3,800 people compared to September’s 233,300.  It was also well ahead of last October’s 231,800.  Their all-time high for jobs was three years ago in January with a 240,000 employment figure.


Manufacturing in the state racked up 155,700 jobs in October, which was the same as September.  The number was up 500 gigs from last October.  The division has fallen quite a bit in recent years.  The numbers from June is over 34 percent underneath the employment number for January of 2001 when they employed 236,000 citizens.


Government positions increased to 223,400 in October as opposed to 222,600 in September.  The 2012 October number is 1,900 more than October of 2011.


Arkansas’ Education and Health Services department was unchanged from September to October.  This has been one of the more reliable departments over the last decade.  The number in October is a 4,900 bump from last October.  Jobs are on the rise 29 percent when shown against data from January of 2002.


The state’s tourism division amassed 104,900 jobs in October, a 1,500 increase from September and way north of the 99,300 jobs from twelve months ago.


In construction, there were 42,800 with jobs in October, a 1,300 dip from September and a 3,900 drop from last October.  Construction gigs are down on the whole over 21 percent in comparison to January of 2002.


According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 42 states in the country that saw their jobless rates decrease and eight states saw jobless rates increase for the month of October compared to October of 2011.