Workers in the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $20.70 in May 2016, about 13 percent below the nationwide average of $23.86, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 19 of the 22 major groups, including legal; management; and construction and extraction. Wages in three occupational groups were not measurably different from their respective national averages.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 5 of the 22 occupational groups, including healthcare practitioners and technical; management; and sales and related. Conversely, eight groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including production; education, training, and library; and architecture and engineering. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2016

Major occupational group	Percent of total employment			Mean hourly wage
	United States	Little Rock- North Little Rock- Conway, AR		United States	Little Rock- North Little Rock- Conway, AR		Percent difference(1)
Total, all occupations	100.0	100.0		$23.86	$20.70	*	-13
Management	5.1	5.8	*	56.74	41.85	*	-26
Business and financial operations	5.2	5.1		36.09	28.64	*	-21
Computer and mathematical	3.0	3.2		42.25	32.66	*	-23
Architecture and engineering	1.8	1.2	*	40.53	32.21	*	-21
Life, physical, and social science	0.8	0.7	*	35.06	27.42	*	-22
Community and social service	1.4	1.3	*	22.69	19.90	*	-12
Legal	0.8	0.9	*	50.95	36.23	*	-29
Education, training, and library	6.2	5.0	*	26.21	26.27		0
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media	1.4	0.9	*	28.07	20.80	*	-26
Healthcare practitioners and technical	5.9	8.2	*	38.06	32.71	*	-14
Healthcare support	2.9	3.1		14.65	13.40	*	-9
Protective service	2.4	2.4		22.03	17.64	*	-20
Food preparation and serving related	9.2	8.8	*	11.47	10.27	*	-10
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance	3.2	3.1		13.47	11.20	*	-17
Personal care and service	3.2	3.2		12.74	10.86	*	-15
Sales and related	10.4	11.0	*	19.50	17.09	*	-12
Office and administrative support	15.7	16.0		17.91	16.17	*	-10
Farming, fishing, and forestry	0.3	0.2	*	13.37	13.95		4
Construction and extraction	4.0	3.9		23.51	18.11	*	-23
Installation, maintenance, and repair	3.9	4.2	*	22.45	19.42	*	-13
Production	6.5	5.2	*	17.88	17.22		-4
Transportation and material moving	6.9	6.6		17.34	15.93	*	-8
Footnotes: (1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
Note: * 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–healthcare practitioners and technical–was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Little Rock had 28,110 jobs in healthcare practitioners and technical, accounting for 8.2 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.9-percent national share. However, the local average hourly wage for this occupational group, $32.71 per hour, was about 14 percent below the national average of $38.06.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group included registered nurses (9,320), licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses (3,500), and pharmacists (1,460). One of the higher-paying jobs was family and general practitioners, with mean hourly wages of $116.54. At the lower end of the wage scale were emergency medical technicians and paramedics ($12.14) and psychiatric technicians ($13.79). (Detailed occupational data for the healthcare practitioners and technical group are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_30780.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 Little Rock metropolitan area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group. For instance, in the Little Rock area, both pharmacists and speech language pathologists were employed at 2.0 times the national rate. These location quotients were among the highest in all metropolitan areas for these two particular occupations. On the other hand, dental hygienists had a location quotient of 1.0 in Little Rock, 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 mail 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 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,757 establishments with a response rate of 74 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The May 2016 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 Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Faulkner, Grant, Lonoke, Perry, Pulaski, and Saline Counties in Arkansas.

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, Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016

Occupation(1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level(2)	Location quotient(3)	Hourly	Annual(4)
Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations	28,110	1.4	$32.71	$68,030
Chiropractors	100	1.2	(5)	(5)
Dentists, general	150	0.6	66.39	138,100
Dietitians and nutritionists	190	1.3	27.60	57,410
Optometrists	50	0.5	45.29	94,200
Pharmacists	1,460	2.0	52.00	108,150
Family and general practitioners	300	1.0	116.54	242,400
Internists, general	140	1.3	122.39	254,580
Obstetricians and gynecologists	(5)	(5)	129.35	269,050
Surgeons	190	1.9	108.46	225,590
Physicians and surgeons, all other	1,480	1.8	70.66	146,980
Physician assistants	220	0.9	38.52	80,110
Occupational therapists	480	1.7	38.12	79,280
Physical therapists	690	1.3	39.97	83,140
Radiation therapists	120	2.8	33.99	70,690
Respiratory therapists	330	1.1	25.40	52,820
Speech-language pathologists	670	2.0	34.24	71,210
Veterinarians	200	1.2	30.70	63,850
Registered nurses	9,320	1.3	29.79	61,970
Nurse anesthetists	150	1.6	65.88	137,030
Nurse practitioners	540	1.5	42.59	88,590
Health diagnosing and treating practitioners, all other	90	1.1	33.16	68,980
Medical and clinical laboratory technologists	440	1.1	24.26	50,460
Medical and clinical laboratory technicians	490	1.3	15.94	33,160
Dental hygienists	470	1.0	31.24	64,980
Cardiovascular technologists and technicians	230	1.8	23.05	47,940
Diagnostic medical sonographers	230	1.4	29.88	62,150
Nuclear medicine technologists	90	1.9	33.57	69,820
Radiologic technologists	740	1.5	23.77	49,440
Magnetic resonance imaging technologists	170	1.9	26.56	55,240
Emergency medical technicians and paramedics	340	0.6	12.14	25,260
Dietetic technicians	80	1.0	12.48	25,960
Pharmacy technicians	1,390	1.4	15.14	31,490
Psychiatric technicians	360	2.4	13.79	28,680
Respiratory therapy technicians	(5)	(5)	21.78	45,310
Surgical technologists	350	1.4	20.14	41,890
Veterinary technologists and technicians	(5)	(5)	14.03	29,180
Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses	3,500	2.1	18.79	39,080
Medical records and health information technicians	630	1.3	18.62	38,730
Opticians, dispensing	110	0.6	20.54	42,720
Health technologists and technicians, all other	470	1.6	21.36	44,430
Occupational health and safety specialists	210	1.1	28.07	58,390
Occupational health and safety technicians	(5)	(5)	29.02	60,350
Athletic trainers	60	1.1	(6)	31,190
Healthcare practitioners and technical workers, all other	390	4.5	21.67	45,060
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_30780.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) Estimates not released. (6) Wages for some occupations that do not generally work year-round, full time, are reported either as hourly wages or annual salaries depending on how they are typically paid.