Best of of Conway Pulse

The Jobs Report

Pulse of Conway is the premier source for business news in the North Metro region. Our goal is to make Pulse of Conway readers the most informed professionals in the market. Here’s a recap of our top stories for 2022:

Central Arkansas has a gross regional product of more than $43 billion, created from more than 377,000 jobs in a five-county region. The region — comprised of Conway, Faulkner, Pulaski, Saline and White counties — has a population of more than 751,000.

Pulaski County holds a large majority of the GRP and jobs with $32.4 billion and nearly 270,000 jobs, respectively. Faulkner County’s GRP is $4.5 billion, created through more than 45,000 jobs.

Saline and White counties both have a gross regional product of more than $2 billion and more than 25,000 jobs each. Conway County has a GRP of $812 million from nearly 7,500 jobs.

A&P Tax Report 2022: Year-End Totals Near $6M

Restaurant and hotel sales tax collections neared $6 million in 2022.

The final number, more than $5.7 million, surpassed 2021 totals by more than half a million dollars.

Last year’s collections continued a recovery from a pandemic-low of just over $4 million in 2020. Restaurant collections totaled nearly $5.3 million and hotel collections surpassed $455,000.

Collections totaled more than $400,000 in each month of 2022 for the first time ever. Over the wyear, restaurant collections averaged $441,000 and hotel collections averaged $37,900. Restaurant collections reached its year-high in August with more than $489,000, while hotel collections topped $51,400 in July.

Sales Tax Report

The major cities in the central Arkansas metro have all experienced growth in sales tax collections over last year.

Little Rock, North Little Rock and Conway averaged an 8.76% increase over 2021. Conway experienced the largest percent increase at 12.84%. Little Rock is up 8.03% while North Little Rock is up 5.42%.

This is in line with a report in the September issue of Pulse, which reported county sales tax numbers were up across central Arkansas through the first eight months of 2022.

Faulkner County was up the most, nearly 14% and $1.1 million, over 2021 collections. Pulaski County was up nearly 7% to $74.8 million through August. County sales tax numbers through the first eight months of this year are up over 2021 collections across the five counties in central Arkansas.

Faulkner County numbers are up the most, outperforming 2021 numbers by nearly 14%. This year’s collections total $9.2 million, compared to $8.1 million through the same period in 2021.

Saline County numbers are up 7.7% to $5.8 million in 2022. Pulaski County is close behind, up nearly 7% to $74.8 million. White County is outperforming 2021 collections by 4.4%, totaling $17.1 million through August.

Conway County collections are up nearly 1.5% to $4.5 million.