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14-1227-DAL
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Workers in the Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $16.81 in May 2013, more than 20 percent below the nationwide average of $22.33, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly lower than their respective national averages in all but 1 of the 22 major occupational groups; local wages for the farming, fishing, and forestry occupational group were not measurably different from the national average.
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 construction and extraction. Conversely, 11 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including office and administrative support; business and financial operations; and computer and mathematical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)
Major occupational group | Percent of total employment | Mean hourly wage | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
United States | Fort Smith | United States | Fort Smith | Percent difference(1) | |||
Total, all occupations | 100.0% | 100.0% | $22.33 | $16.81 | * | -25 | |
Management | 4.9 | 4.4 | * | 53.15 | 40.58 | * | -24 |
Business and financial operations | 5.0 | 3.2 | * | 34.14 | 27.86 | * | -18 |
Computer and mathematical | 2.8 | 0.9 | * | 39.43 | 29.57 | * | -25 |
Architecture and engineering | 1.8 | 0.8 | * | 38.51 | 31.24 | * | -19 |
Life, physical, and social science | 0.9 | 0.2 | * | 33.37 | 24.24 | * | -27 |
Community and social service | 1.4 | 1.2 | * | 21.50 | 17.68 | * | -18 |
Legal | 0.8 | 0.4 | * | 47.89 | 37.28 | * | -22 |
Education, training, and library | 6.3 | 5.8 | * | 24.76 | 18.70 | * | -24 |
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media | 1.3 | 0.7 | * | 26.72 | 18.86 | * | -29 |
Healthcare practitioners and technical | 5.8 | 5.7 | 35.93 | 28.99 | * | -19 | |
Healthcare support | 3.0 | 3.1 | 13.61 | 10.66 | * | -22 | |
Protective service | 2.5 | 2.4 | 20.92 | 15.49 | * | -26 | |
Food preparation and serving related | 9.0 | 9.1 | 10.38 | 8.88 | * | -14 | |
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance | 3.2 | 2.7 | * | 12.51 | 10.57 | * | -16 |
Personal care and service | 3.0 | 2.9 | 11.88 | 9.52 | * | -20 | |
Sales and related | 10.6 | 10.1 | 18.37 | 13.91 | * | -24 | |
Office and administrative support | 16.2 | 14.8 | * | 16.78 | 13.90 | * | -17 |
Farming, fishing, and forestry | 0.3 | 0.8 | 11.70 | 11.48 | -2 | ||
Construction and extraction | 3.8 | 4.2 | * | 21.94 | 17.29 | * | -21 |
Installation, maintenance, and repair | 3.9 | 4.3 | * | 21.35 | 18.01 | * | -16 |
Production | 6.6 | 12.1 | * | 16.79 | 13.86 | * | -17 |
Transportation and material moving | 6.8 | 10.1 | * | 16.28 | 14.94 | * | -8 |
* The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level. |
One occupational group–production–was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Fort Smith had 13,570 jobs in production, accounting for 12.1 percent of local area employment, nearly double the 6.6-percent national share. The local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $13.86, 17 percent below the national average of $16.79. Still, the wage differential for this local group was much smaller than the overall local difference of 25 percent.
Some of the largest detailed occupations within the production group included production workers’ helpers and team assemblers (both at 1,660), followed by meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers (1,380). First-line supervisors of production and operating workers, along with machinists, were among the higher paying jobs with mean hourly wages of $21.91 and $18.50, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were slaughterers and meat packers ($8.58) and laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($9.19). (Detailed occupational data for the production occupational group are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations 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 area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, slaughterers and meat packers were employed at 9.6 times the national rate in Fort Smith, and meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers, at more than 10 times the U.S. average. Fort Smith’s meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers location quotient of 10.2 ranked third highest in the entire country, followed by another Arkansas area, Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers (9.9).
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.
OES wage and employment data for the 22 major occupational groups in the Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area were compared to their respective national averages based on statistical significance testing. Only those occupations with wages or employment shares above or below the national wage or share after testing for significance at the 90-percent confidence level meet the criteria.
Note: A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.
The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual mail survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are also surveyed, but their data are not included in the national estimates. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year for a 3-year period. May 2013 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected in May 2013, November 2012, May 2012, November 2011, May 2011, and November 2010. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 75.3 percent based on establishments and 71.6 percent based on employment. The sample in the Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,864 establishments with a response rate of 87 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.
The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and 821 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas. In addition, employment and wage estimates for 94 minor groups and 458 broad occupations are available in the national data. OES data by state and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan area are available from www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm and www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm, respectively.
The May 2013 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.
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 (MSA) includes Crawford, Franklin, 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/home.htm. 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/2013/may/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: 1-800-877-8339.
Occupation(1) | Employment | Mean wages | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Level(2) | Location quotient(3) | Hourly | Annual(4) | |
Production occupations | 13,570 | 1.8 | $13.86 | $28,830 |
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers | 890 | 1.8 | 21.91 | 45,570 |
Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers | (5) | (5) | 13.03 | 27,110 |
Structural metal fabricators and fitters | 40 | 0.6 | 14.64 | 30,450 |
Team assemblers | 1,660 | 1.9 | 14.39 | 29,940 |
Assemblers and fabricators, all other | 150 | 0.7 | 13.49 | 28,050 |
Bakers | 90 | 0.6 | 9.88 | 20,550 |
Butchers and meat cutters | 100 | 0.8 | 11.41 | 23,740 |
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers | 1,380 | 10.2 | 10.33 | 21,480 |
Slaughterers and meat packers | 670 | 9.6 | 8.58 | 17,840 |
Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders | (5) | (5) | 8.89 | 18,490 |
Food batchmakers | 110 | 1.1 | 9.99 | 20,770 |
Food cooking machine operators and tenders | 200 | 7.0 | 12.46 | 25,910 |
Food processing workers, all other | 380 | 10.4 | 9.70 | 20,180 |
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | 330 | 2.1 | 17.58 | 36,560 |
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | 40 | 0.6 | 13.62 | 28,320 |
Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | 30 | 1.0 | 17.19 | 35,760 |
Milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | 30 | 1.5 | (5) | (5) |
Machinists | 150 | 0.5 | 18.50 | 38,490 |
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | 220 | 2.8 | 13.34 | 27,750 |
Tool and die makers | (5) | (5) | 17.44 | 36,270 |
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers | 510 | 1.7 | 16.34 | 33,980 |
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders | (5) | (5) | 16.72 | 34,770 |
Heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | 40 | 2.3 | 20.17 | 41,950 |
Plating and coating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic | (5) | (5) | 15.16 | 31,520 |
Metal workers and plastic workers, all other | 80 | 4.4 | 15.11 | 31,430 |
Prepress technicians and workers | 70 | 2.1 | 16.93 | 35,210 |
Printing press operators | 190 | 1.4 | 14.62 | 30,420 |
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers | 120 | 0.7 | 9.19 | 19,120 |
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials | (5) | (5) | 9.56 | 19,890 |
Sewing machine operators | 40 | 0.4 | 9.65 | 20,070 |
Upholsterers | 50 | 1.9 | (5) | (5) |
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters | 40 | 0.6 | 13.94 | 29,000 |
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing | 90 | 1.5 | 11.13 | 23,140 |
Power plant operators | (5) | (5) | 30.06 | 62,530 |
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators | 180 | 2.0 | 15.32 | 31,860 |
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders | 40 | 1.1 | 15.52 | 32,280 |
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders | 50 | 2.0 | 10.79 | 22,440 |
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders | 100 | 1.0 | 15.34 | 31,910 |
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders | 290 | 5.7 | 11.32 | 23,540 |
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers | 810 | 2.0 | 14.98 | 31,160 |
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders | 580 | 1.8 | 13.77 | 28,640 |
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders | 160 | 2.2 | 18.36 | 38,180 |
Cleaning, washing, and metal pickling equipment operators and tenders | 60 | 4.5 | 10.82 | 22,510 |
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic | 40 | 1.6 | 12.37 | 25,720 |
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders | 310 | 3.9 | 17.10 | 35,570 |
Helpers--production workers | 1,660 | 4.6 | 11.08 | 23,040 |
Production workers, all other | 90 | 0.5 | 11.79 | 24,510 |
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Fort Smith MSA, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_22900.htm. |
Last Modified Date: Thursday, June 26, 2014