Unemployment rate falls in state’s metro areas
The unemployment rate in the Fayetteville metropolitan area was the lowest in the state in February at 4. 2 percent, the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
The unemployment rate fell from 4. 4 percent in January in the Fayetteville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which covers Benton, Washington and Madison counties as well as McDonald County, Missouri.
The Little Rock MSA had an unemployment rate of 4. 9 percent in February, down from 5. 2 percent in January.
Other Arkansas metropolitan area unemployment rates for February were Fort Smith at 5. 1 percent, down from 5. 9 percent in January; Jonesboro, 5. 5 percent, down from 6. 2 percent; Hot Springs, 5. 8 percent, down from 6. 4 percent; and Pine Bluff, 7. 7 percent, down from 8. 9 percent.
Arkansas’ unemployment rate was 5 percent in February and the national rate was 4. 8 percent. Tesco sues the Guardian for libel over tax story
Tesco Plc, the U. K. ’s biggest supermarket chain, is suing the Guardian newspaper for libel over a story that claimed the retailer used offshore companies to avoid paying $ 2 billion in taxes.
The newspaper published stories in February saying the supermarket chain “had contrived a tax avoidance structure involving a series of joint venture partnerships held largely offshore to avoid paying” as much as $ 2 billion in U. K. tax on the sale of property, Tesco said Friday in a statement.
“We cannot allow Tesco’s reputation to be so seriously attacked with such willful disregard for the truth,” Lucy Neville-Rolfe, the retailer’s director of corporate and legal affairs, said in the statement. Cheshunt, England-based Tesco said it told the newspaper five times that the allegations were untrue and its denials weren’t published.
The Guardian, which is published in London and Manchester, said in a statement that the articles “never claimed Tesco behaved illegally.”
Tesco is a rival of Asda, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ’s British supermarket chain. Arkansas 20 rises 0. 83; Dillard’s advances 8 %
The Arkansas 20, a priceweighted index that tracks public companies based in the state, gained 0. 83 to 186. 26 on Friday.
Eight stocks advanced, 10 declined, and two were unchanged.
Dillard’s Inc. rose 8 percent in average trading.
Equity Media continued its slide, dropping 13 percent on 10 times its normal volume.
For the week, 17 stocks advanced and three declined.
Dillard’s gained almost 32 percent for the week.
Arkansas Best Corp. rose 10 percent.
Volume on the index was 35. 1 million shares. The average daily volume is 38. 5 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
