Workers in the Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $17.85 in May 2017, about 27 percent below the nationwide average of $24.34, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, all 22 major occupational groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal; construction and extraction; and management.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including production; transportation and material moving; and installation, maintenance, and repair. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; computer and mathematical; and education, training, and library. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Fort Smith had 13,050 jobs in production, accounting for 12.1 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $14.08, significantly below the national wage of $18.30.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included production workers' helpers (2,300), meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers (1,030), and assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers (990). Among the higher-paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and printing press operators, with mean hourly wages of $23.07 and $20.86, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($9.68) and production workers' helpers ($10.98). (Detailed occupational data for production are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_22900.htm .)

Location quotients allow us to explore the occupational make-up of a metropolitan area by comparing the composition of jobs in an area relative to the national average. (See table 1.) For example, a location quotient of 2.0 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers were employed at 8.9 times the national rate in Fort Smith, and production workers' helpers, at 7.6 times the U.S. average. Both Fort Smith location quotients were among the highest in all metropolitan areas for these particular occupations. On the other hand, assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Fort Smith, indicating that this occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OES data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2017 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, and November 2014. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 72 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted sample employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,643 establishments with a response rate of 79 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

The May 2017 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2012 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

Metropolitan area definitions

The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

The Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Crawford, and Sebastian Counties in Arkansas, and Le Flore and Sequoyah Counties in Oklahoma.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/southwest. Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/oes/current/methods_statement.pdf.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2017

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	13,050	1.9	$14.08	$29,290
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	920	2.0	23.07	47,990
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	(5)	(5)	12.85	26,720
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	230	3.8	17.41	36,210
Assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers	990	1.0	12.83	26,690
Bakers	130	1.0	11.54	24,010
Butchers and meat cutters	70	0.7	12.81	26,650
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	1,030	8.9	11.03	22,930
Food batchmakers	270	2.4	12.00	24,960
Food processing workers, all other	1,350	41.1	11.01	22,910
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	60	1.2	17.94	37,320
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	160	1.1	15.26	31,740
Machinists	140	0.5	17.30	35,990
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	60	0.5	14.90	30,990
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	440	1.5	18.64	38,760
Prepress technicians and workers	40	1.6	19.90	41,390
Printing press operators	190	1.5	20.86	43,380
Print binding and finishing workers	80	2.3	15.78	32,830
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	170	1.1	9.68	20,140
Sewing machine operators	(5)	(5)	12.20	25,380
Upholsterers	(5)	(5)	11.86	24,660
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	80	1.1	12.65	26,310
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	40	0.9	10.49	21,820
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	50	0.8	11.43	23,770
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	300	3.3	16.22	33,730
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	30	0.5	16.03	33,350
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	120	1.3	18.00	37,430
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	280	6.2	15.75	32,750
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	(5)	(5)	14.56	30,290
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	550	1.4	15.10	31,400
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	500	1.7	14.31	29,760
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	80	1.2	14.44	30,030
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	150	2.1	16.74	34,810
Helpers-production workers	2,300	7.6	10.98	22,830
Production workers, all other	80	0.4	12.96	26,950
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_22900.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations not shown separately. Estimates do not include self-employed workers. (3) The location quotient is the ratio of the area concentration of occupational employment to the national average concentration. A location quotient greater than one indicates the occupation has a higher share of employment than average, and a location quotient less than one indicates the occupation is less prevalent in the area than average. (4) Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a "year-round, full-time" hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those occupations where there is not an hourly mean wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data. (5) Estimate not released.