Workers in the Fort Smith, AR-OK Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $19.09 in May 2019, about 26 percent below the nationwide average of $25.72, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Acting Regional Commissioner Michael Hirniak noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 21 of the 22 major occupational groups had average wages in the local area that were significantly lower than their respective national averages, including legal, management, and protective service. No local group had wages that were significantly above their respective national average.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Fort Smith area employment was more highly concentrated in 3 of the 22 occupational groups: production, sales and related, and installation, maintenance, and repair. Eleven groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, computer and mathematical, and office and administrative support. (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 11,790 jobs in production, accounting for 11.0 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $15.21, significantly below the national wage of $19.30.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers (1,860), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (930), and packaging and filling machine operators and tenders (840). 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 $23.78 and $19.98, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($10.23) and meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers ($11.95). (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 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 16.6 times the national rate in Fort Smith, and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 3.9 times the U.S. average. Fort Smith’s location quotient for meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers was among the highest in all the published metropolitan areas nationwide for this particular occupation. Laundry and dry-cleaning workers had a location quotient of 1.1 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 1.1 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 2019 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2019, November 2018, May 2018, November 2017, May 2017, and November 2016. The unweighted sample employment of 83 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 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, AR-OK Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,630 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.

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 2019 OES estimates are the first set of OES estimates to be based in part on survey data collected using the 2018 SOC. These estimates use a hybrid of the 2010 and 2018 SOC systems. More information on the hybrid classification system is available at www.bls.gov/oes/soc_2018.htm.

The May 2019 OES estimates are based on the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). More 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, AR Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Crawford and Sebastian Counties in Arkansas, and Le Flore and Sequoyah Counties in Oklahoma.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OES program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

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 for production occupations, Fort Smith, AR-OK Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2019

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	11,790	1.8	$15.21	$31,640
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	930	2.0	23.78	49,470
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	310	1.5	15.32	31,870
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	50	1.0	15.64	32,520
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	770	0.8	12.95	26,940
Bakers	130	1.0	11.71	24,360
Butchers and meat cutters	60	0.6	13.94	28,990
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	1,860	16.6	11.95	24,860
Slaughterers and meat packers	(5)	(5)	13.15	27,340
Food batchmakers	180	1.5	13.12	27,290
Food processing workers, all other	(5)	(5)	11.93	24,810
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	(5)	(5)	13.66	28,410
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	100	0.7	15.43	32,080
Machinists	180	0.6	18.95	39,430
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	410	1.4	19.15	39,820
Prepress technicians and workers	30	1.6	21.32	44,350
Printing press operators	270	2.1	19.98	41,560
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	160	1.1	10.23	21,280
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials	40	1.5	11.09	23,070
Sewing machine operators	150	1.5	12.52	26,040
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	70	1.0	14.96	31,110
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	80	1.3	14.15	29,430
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	250	2.8	16.67	34,660
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders	40	1.6	16.26	33,820
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	0.5	15.57	32,380
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	150	3.6	16.88	35,110
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	200	3.8	16.15	33,590
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	610	1.5	14.74	30,670
Ophthalmic laboratory technicians	40	1.8	12.96	26,960
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	840	3.0	16.17	33,640
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	150	1.4	16.01	33,300
Cleaning, washing, and metal pickling equipment operators and tenders	150	12.2	12.56	26,130
Cooling and freezing equipment operators and tenders	(5)	(5)	15.37	31,980
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	30	1.0	14.05	29,220
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	280	3.9	16.41	34,140
Helpers--production workers	410	1.9	14.02	29,170
Production workers, all other	180	1.1	12.42	25,840
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 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. (5) Estimate not released.