Workers in the Fort Smith, AR-OK Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $23.42 in May 2024, compared to the nationwide average of $32.66, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($44.46), legal ($40.80), and architecture and engineering ($38.96). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($13.51), personal care and service ($14.94), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($15.29). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Fort Smith area included production (13.4 percent), transportation and material moving (11.8 percent), and office and administrative support (11.5 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.4 percent); legal (0.5 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (0.6 percent).

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Fort Smith had 12,900 jobs in production, accounting for 13.4 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $20.57, compared to the national wage of $24.08.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers (2,330), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,130), and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (700). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were gas plant operators ($40.59) and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($29.22). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($13.31) and bakers ($13.99). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0022900.)

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 2.00 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Fort Smith 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 26.35 times the national rate in Fort Smith, and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 3.77 times the U.S. average.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services, and the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 530 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels; and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology are available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.7 percent based on establishments and 65.9 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Fort Smith, AR-OK Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,368 establishments with a response rate of 74 percent.

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, AR-OK Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Crawford County, AR; Sebastian County, AR; and Sequoyah County, OK.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for production occupations, Fort Smith metropolitan area, May 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	12,900	2.36	20.57	42,790
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,130	2.64	29.22	60,780
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	400	2.44	22.21	46,190
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	110	3.19	24.10	50,130
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	1,230	1.35	18.07	37,590
Bakers	190	1.34	13.99	29,100
Butchers and meat cutters	80	0.91	17.34	36,070
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	2,330	26.35	16.24	33,780
Slaughterers and meat packers	90	2.16	17.46	36,330
Food batchmakers	350	3.28	20.99	43,660
Food processing workers, all other	200	5.49	19.54	40,640
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	70	1.66	24.96	51,910
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	210	1.96	19.47	40,490
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	110	2.46	23.72	49,350
Machinists	220	1.15	22.85	47,520
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	200	2.11	18.74	38,980
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	470	1.78	22.83	47,480
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	30	1.47	20.55	42,750
Tool grinders, filers, and sharpeners	30	9.23	17.47	36,340
Printing press operators	160	1.75	25.49	53,010
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	180	1.47	13.31	27,690
Sewing machine operators	110	1.58	15.70	32,650
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	120	2.47	26.50	55,110
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	50	1.80	16.57	34,460
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	70	1.83	17.95	37,330
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	230	2.94	19.75	41,090
Gas plant operators	80	7.95	40.59	84,430
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	1.61	21.19	44,080
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	100	1.60	19.66	40,900
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	260	8.69	22.43	46,650
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	1.38	17.81	37,040
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	700	1.88	20.53	42,710
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	600	2.48	20.05	41,700
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	140	1.38	22.02	45,800
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	390	3.49	24.93	51,850
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	40	2.31	26.97	56,100
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	230	3.77	19.60	40,760
Helpers--production workers	460	4.40	17.92	37,280
Production workers, all other	320	1.87	18.89	39,290
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Fort Smith, AR-OK Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0022900. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that are 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.