Workers in the Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $16.93 in May 2012, more than 20 percent below the nationwide average of $22.04, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were significantly lower than their respective national averages in all but 1 of the 22 major occupational groups; local wages for the transportation and material moving occupational group were not measurably different from the national average.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, transportation and material moving, and construction and extraction. Conversely, 12 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including office and administrative support, business and financial operations, and computer and mathematical. (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 14,050 jobs in production, accounting for 12.4 percent of local area employment, nearly double the 6.6-percent national share. The local average hourly wage for this occupational group was $14.21, 14 percent below the national average of $16.59. Still, the wage differential for this local group was much smaller than the overall local difference of 23 percent.

With employment of 1,900, production workers’ helpers was the largest occupation within the production group, followed by team assemblers (1,550) and meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers (1,390). First-line supervisors of production and operating workers, along with tool and die makers, were among the higher paying jobs with mean hourly wages of $23.40 and $19.50, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were slaughters and meat packers ($8.51) and meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers ($9.67). (Detailed occupational data for the production occupational group are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations 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 area, above average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, production workers’ helpers were employed at 5.2 times the national rate in Fort Smith, and meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers, at more than 10 times the U.S. average. Fort Smith’s meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers location quotient of 10.1 ranked third highest in the entire country, followed by another Arkansas area, Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers (9.9).

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.

With the release of the May 2012 estimates, OES data are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system for the first time. The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and more than 800 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas. In addition, employment and wage estimates for 94 minor groups and 458 broad occupations are available in the national data for the first time. Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc/.

The May 2012 OES estimates are the first to be produced using the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2012 NAICS is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

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. Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are also surveyed, but their data are not included in the national estimates. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year for a 3-year period. May 2012 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected in May 2012, November 2011, May 2011, November 2010, May 2010, and November 2009. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 76.6 percent based on establishments and 72.9 percent based on employment. The sample in the Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,861 establishments with a response rate of 87 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

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 (MSA) includes Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian Counties in Arkansas, and Le Flore and Sequoyah Counties in Oklahoma.

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/ro6. 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/2012/may/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: 1-800-877-8339.