About the Center for Rural Resilience and Workforce Development

The Center for Rural Resilience and Workforce Development serves as a resource to the state of Arkansas’ economic development ecosystem with a particular focus on:

• strengthening the economic development ecosystem in Arkansas counties that draws on Extension’s land grant mission and presence in all 75 counties
• serving as an economic development data resource center with a particular focus on workforce data that increases economic development resiliency
• increasing the capacity of planning and development districts to serve rural communities through program support

We serve the entire state of Arkansas, and we have a particular interest in reaching rural communities in Arkansas by strengthening, supporting, and sustaining the eight EDA Economic and Planning Development Districts across the state.

These eight districts that serve all 75 counties, ranging from six to twelve counties each. You can find your district by county using the map below.

Each district provides a range of services including:

• grant writing
• planning
• community and economic development
• project administration for economic development projects.

In addition, each district is required to develop a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS), a planning tool of the EDA that is a strategy-driven plan for regional economic development that is place-based and specific to the needs and opportunities of the region.

Find Your EDA Development District

 

Labor Market Observatory

The Labor Market Observatory (LMO) is a data visualization tool designed to help development professionals, community organizations, and individuals access workforce indicators from various state and federal sources. The LMO is an interactive dashboard featuring various workforce indicators such as demographics, housing and income, and employment statistics at the county, development district, and state levels.

All eight of EDA's Economic Development Districts (EDDs) have a custom view for each data set where you can view district-level data or drill down to an individual county.

How it works

The LMO can be accessed through the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Data Hub. To access the LMO, click on the Labor Market Observatory link below.

There are several steps to using the LMO:

1. Select a Data Category - Select either the Demographics, Economy, or Housing and Income tab on the left side. Each tab offers a different category of data.
2. Choose a Metric - Under the “Choose a Metric” slicer, select the specific socioeconomic indicator you want to explore. The available metrics in the map and bar chart change based on the metric selected.
3. Explore Data Using the Map or Bar Chart - In the LMO, simply hover over the map or bar chart to see information about a particular area called a tool tip. Clicking an Economic Development District on the map or bar chart isolates that data in the table below the map, making the data easier to focus on.
4. View County Level Data Within a District - To view county-level data within an Economic Development District either:
   • Scroll down in the table to find county-level values
   • Click the “view Counties” button to drill through to a county-level map or bar chart

You can customize your own region by holding down "Shift" (Windows) or "Command" (Mac). Doing so will pull data from the selected county while also visually displaying how it compares to that district overall. You can change the size of the dashboard by using the tools on the bottom-left of the dashboard.

 

 

LMO Data

Download an Excel file of the LMO data for reports or a more granular look.

2019-2023 ACS 5-year, from the subject group S2503: Financial Characteristics
2020 Decennial Census Detailed Demographics and Housing Characteristics File A, Table T01001 : Total Population
Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics estimates from December 2024

Updates and features

Our team updates the data periodically to reflect the most current data available.

Trainings

Trainings on how to use the LMO and ways to improve your storytelling through better data visualization are offered periodically. These trainings can be found on the UADA Calendar. You can also check the UADA's Community and Economic Development Facebook page for event postings.

Contact us

Need help with the LMO dashboard or looking for different data? Contact Luke Pullo at lpullo@uada.edu.