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News Release Information

25-1106-DAL
Tuesday, July 08, 2025

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (972) 850-4800

Occupational Employment and Wages in Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway — May 2024

Workers in the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.70 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 legal ($51.43), management ($47.91), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($40.82). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.25), personal care and service ($15.17), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($15.95). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Little Rock area included office and administrative support (12.4 percent), transportation and material moving (9.7 percent), and sales and related (9.0 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included life, physical, and social science (0.7 percent); legal (0.9 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.0 percent).

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Little Rock metropolitan area, May 2024
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Little Rock United States Little Rock

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 32.66 26.70

Management

7.1 7.6 68.15 47.91

Business and financial operations

6.7 5.8 45.04 34.97

Computer and mathematical

3.4 2.2 56.16 37.89

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.1 49.99 38.39

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.7 43.12 33.64

Community and social service

1.7 1.5 30.31 26.30

Legal

0.8 0.9 66.19 51.43

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.4 31.69 30.33

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.0 37.04 24.28

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.2 8.8 50.59 40.82

Healthcare support

4.8 4.5 19.06 16.61

Protective service

2.4 2.5 29.33 24.72

Food preparation and serving related

8.8 8.8 17.32 14.25

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.7 19.01 15.95

Personal care and service

2.0 1.8 18.95 15.17

Sales and related

8.7 9.0 26.00 21.52

Office and administrative support

11.8 12.4 24.12 21.25

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1 20.06 20.79

Construction and extraction

4.1 3.9 30.73 23.20

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.4 29.63 26.53

Production

5.7 5.2 24.08 21.81

Transportation and material moving

8.9 9.7 23.44 21.46

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 31,030 jobs in healthcare practitioners and technical, accounting for 8.8 percent of local area employment, compared to the 6.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $40.82, compared to the national wage of $50.59.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group included registered nurses (11,220), licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses (2,650), and pharmacy technicians (1,370). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were general dentists ($92.76) and nurse anesthetists ($81.31). At the lower end of the wage scale were dietetic technicians ($17.21) and psychiatric technicians ($17.48). (Detailed data for the healthcare practitioners and technical occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0030780.)

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 Little Rock area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the healthcare practitioners and technical group. For instance, family medicine physicians were employed at 3.26 times the national rate in Little Rock, and speech-language pathologists, at 2.31 times the U.S. average. Paramedics had a location quotient of 0.92 in Little Rock, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

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.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

Effective with the May 2024 OEWS news release, the OEWS program has implemented new metropolitan area definitions based on the 2020 decennial census and delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Bulletin 23-01. This news release does not include data for Colorado and its areas because of quality concerns with Colorado’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data. See the national OEWS news release for more information.


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 Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,686 establishments with a response rate of 64 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 Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Faulkner County, Grant County, Lonoke County, Perry County, Pulaski County, and Saline County.

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 healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, Little Rock metropolitan area, May 2024
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations

31,030 1.41 40.82 84,910

Chiropractors

50 0.52 50.96 106,000

Dentists, general

200 0.78 92.76 192,940

Dietitians and nutritionists

240 1.35 31.12 64,730

Optometrists

100 1.02 59.19 123,120

Pharmacists

1,050 1.39 61.72 128,390

Physician assistants

560 1.58 35.07 72,940

Occupational therapists

670 1.92 48.29 100,450

Physical therapists

1,140 2.00 45.58 94,800

Respiratory therapists

550 1.77 33.47 69,620

Speech-language pathologists

940 2.31 41.65 86,630

Therapists, all other

130 2.99 29.38 61,110

Veterinarians

130 0.72 49.80 103,590

Registered nurses

11,220 1.49 39.00 81,120

Nurse anesthetists

90 0.82 81.31 169,130

Nurse practitioners

1,140 1.62 54.69 113,760

Audiologists

50 1.39 46.28 96,270

Family medicine physicians

810 3.26 39.47 82,090

Psychiatrists

40 0.74 93.86 195,220

Physicians, all other

1,020 1.41 113.68 236,460

Dental hygienists

460 0.92 40.15 83,500

Healthcare diagnosing or treating practitioners, all other

120 1.77 44.33 92,200

Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians

1,120 1.43 26.56 55,250

Cardiovascular technologists and technicians

120 0.86 33.56 69,810

Diagnostic medical sonographers

190 0.96 36.99 76,940

Nuclear medicine technologists

100 2.57 34.44 71,640

Radiologic technologists and technicians

660 1.30 31.33 65,170

Magnetic resonance imaging technologists

150 1.59 35.60 74,040

Emergency medical technicians

240 0.60 18.11 37,670

Paramedics

210 0.92 26.55 55,210

Dietetic technicians

60 0.82 17.21 35,790

Pharmacy technicians

1,370 1.23 18.67 38,840

Psychiatric technicians

430 1.39 17.48 36,360

Surgical technologists

580 2.21 27.33 56,840

Ophthalmic medical technicians

200 1.17 18.48 38,440

Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses

2,650 1.83 26.10 54,300

Medical records specialists

630 1.47 22.72 47,260

Opticians, dispensing

160 0.90 23.83 49,570

Orthotists and prosthetists

40 1.64 34.67 72,110

Health technologists and technicians, all other

340 0.86 29.32 60,980

Health information technologists and medical registrars

80 0.87 32.57 67,750

Athletic trainers

100 1.57 (5) 55,260

Healthcare practitioners and technical workers, all other

270 3.18 23.91 49,720

(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0030780.
(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) 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.

 

Last Modified Date: Tuesday, July 08, 2025