Workers in the Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $16.59 in May 2011, about 24 percent below the nationwide average of $21.74, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, no wages in the local area were significantly higher than their respective national averages in 22 major occupational groups. Twenty-one groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including legal, computer and mathematical, and management.

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, 15 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 15,970 jobs in production, accounting for 14.1 percent of local area employment, more than double the 6.5-percent national share. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $14.07, measurably below the national wage of $16.45.

With employment of 2,630, team assemblers was the largest occupation within the production group, followed by production workers’ helpers (2,080) and meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers (1,620). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and tool and die makers, with mean hourly wages of $23.98 and $18.51, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers ($9.64) and production workers’ helpers ($10.86). (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 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 11.2 times the national rate in Fort Smith, and food cooking machine operators and tenders, at 8.2 times the U.S. average.

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. The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and nearly 800 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas.

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 also are 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 establishments in May and November of each year for a 3-year period. The nationwide response rate for the May 2011 survey was 77.3 percent based on establishments and 73.3 percent based on employment. May 2011 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2011, November 2010, May 2010, November 2009, May 2009, and November 2008. The sample in the Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,814 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 May 2011 OES estimates are based in part on data collected using the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. Nearly all the occupations in this release are 2010 SOC occupations; however, some are not. The May 2012 OES data will reflect the full set of detailed occupations in the 2010 SOC. For a list of all occupations, including 2010 SOC occupations, and how data collected on two structures were combined, see the OES Frequently Asked Questions online at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm#Ques41.

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. If you have additional questions, contact the Southwest Information Office at 972-850-4800. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request – Voice phone: 202-691-5200; TDD message referral phone: 1-800-877-8339.