Workers in the Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $18.52 in May 2018, about 26 percent below the nationwide average of $24.98, 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 for all 22 major occupational groups were lower than their respective national averages, with some of the largest gaps occurring in legal; management; and protective service.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including production; transportation and material moving; and installation, maintenance, and repair. Conversely, 10 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; computer and mathematical; and architecture and engineering. (See table A and box notes 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 12,710 jobs in production, accounting for 11.7 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.3-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $14.75, significantly below the national wage of $18.84.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included production workers' helpers (2,030), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (940), and meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers (940). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and printing press operators, with mean hourly wages of $23.57 and $21.05, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($10.18) and production workers' helpers ($11.64). (Detailed data for the production occupations 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 8.0 times the national rate in Fort Smith, and production workers' helpers, at 7.7 times the U.S. average. These two location quotients in Fort Smith were among the highest in all the published metropolitan areas nationwide for these particular occupations. On the other hand, cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, had a location quotient of 1.0 in Fort Smith, indicating that this particular 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 580 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. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OES survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 180,000 to 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 2018 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, November 2016, May 2016, and November 2015. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 71 percent based on establishments and 68 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,617 establishments with a response rate of 78 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

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 May 2018 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2017 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 2017 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 2018

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	12,710	1.9	$14.75	$30,670
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	940	2.0	23.57	49,020
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	(5)	(5)	14.08	29,290
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	110	1.9	17.10	35,580
Assemblers and fabricators, all other, including team assemblers	810	0.8	13.16	27,380
Bakers	130	1.0	11.87	24,690
Butchers and meat cutters	50	0.5	14.42	29,990
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	940	8.0	12.16	25,280
Food batchmakers	270	2.2	12.56	26,130
Food processing workers, all other	1,360	42.7	11.57	24,060
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	100	1.8	15.51	32,250
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	140	1.0	15.33	31,890
Machinists	160	0.6	17.07	35,500
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	60	0.5	15.82	32,900
Tool and die makers	40	0.8	18.71	38,930
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	390	1.3	17.86	37,160
Prepress technicians and workers	40	2.0	20.05	41,710
Printing press operators	220	1.7	21.05	43,790
Print binding and finishing workers	90	2.5	16.33	33,960
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	150	0.9	10.18	21,180
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	50	1.6	10.49	21,830
Sewing machine operators	160	1.6	12.03	25,030
Upholsterers	(5)	(5)	12.35	25,690
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	80	1.0	13.02	27,080
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	50	0.8	11.86	24,660
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	290	3.1	16.31	33,930
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	2.0	15.20	31,630
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	120	1.3	20.28	42,190
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	200	4.5	17.45	36,290
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	550	1.3	15.74	32,750
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	600	2.0	15.26	31,740
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	130	1.9	15.06	31,330
Painters, transportation equipment	30	0.8	17.15	35,680
Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders	60	5.0	(5)	(5)
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	150	2.0	15.60	32,440
Helpers--production workers	2,030	7.7	11.64	24,220
Production workers, all other	110	0.6	13.06	27,170
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Fort Smith, AR-OK 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.