Last Updated :
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August 31, 2020
Arkansas Employment Statistics- 90,525 employers
- 1,211,022 employees
- $845 average weekly wage
- The average weekly wage is 23.3% below the national average
- The cost of living is 11.6% below the national average
Types of Employers (Private Sector vs Government Agency)
As an employer in Arkansas, you are most likely to be running a private company rather than a government agency. 95.4% of employers run private companies in the state, 1.6% less than the national average of 97.0. The remaining 4.6% of employers are government agencies: 1.3% work in a federal agency, 1.2% work for the state and 2.2% work for local government. The chart below illustrates the breakout of employers by type.
83.7% of employees work for a private company. This is 1.5% below the national average of 85.2%. Local government agencies employ 9.0% of the workers in the state, state government agencies employ 5.6% of the workers and the federal government employs 1.7%. The percentage of employees working for a government agency (16.3%) is 1.5% higher than the national average. The chart below illustrates the breakout of employees by type of employer.
The average weekly wage in Arkansas is $845 per week, which is 23.3% greater than the national average of $1,101 per week. Arkansas workers that are employed by private businesses earn $841 per week, 23.5% lower than the national average for private company employees. Employees of federal government agencies in Arkansas earn $1,356 per week, a premium of 61.2% compared to what employees of private companies earn. The chart below illustrates the average weekly by type of employer.
Leading Sectors
Businesses by Sector
The sector with the greatest number of businesses in the state is Healthcare with 16.5% of the businesses in the state. Retail trade (12.2%) and Professional services (10.0%) round out the top 3 sectors.
Table: Sectors by # of Businesses
| Sector | # Businesses | % of Bus. |
|---|
| Healthcare | 14,919 | 16.5% |
| Retail trade | 11,036 | 12.2% |
| Professional services | 9,035 | 10.0% |
| Wholesale trade | 7,244 | 8.0% |
| Construction | 6,958 | 7.7% |
| Accommodation and food services | 6,192 | 6.8% |
| Other services | 5,353 | 5.9% |
| Finance and insurance | 4,979 | 5.5% |
| Waste services | 4,729 | 5.2% |
| Real estate and rental | 3,439 | 3.8% |
| Transport and warehousing | 2,955 | 3.3% |
| Manufacturing | 2,921 | 3.2% |
| Agriculture and forestry | 2,098 | 2.3% |
| Information | 1,211 | 1.3% |
| Arts and entertainment | 987 | 1.1% |
| Educational services | 877 | 1.0% |
| Company management | 560 | 0.6% |
| Mining and oil extraction | 431 | 0.5% |
| Utilities | 430 | 0.5% |
Employees by Sector
The sector with the greatest number of employees in the state is
Healthcare with 14.4% of the employees in the state.
Manufacturing (13.3%) and
Retail trade (11.5%) round out the top 3 sectors.
Table: Sectors by # of Employees
| Sector | # Employees | % of Emp' |
|---|
| Healthcare | 174,259 | 14.4% |
| Manufacturing | 160,596 | 13.3% |
| Retail trade | 139,102 | 11.5% |
| Accommodation and food services | 106,988 | 8.8% |
| Waste services | 67,887 | 5.6% |
| Transport and warehousing | 54,275 | 4.5% |
| Construction | 50,838 | 4.2% |
| Wholesale trade | 47,374 | 3.9% |
| Professional services | 43,999 | 3.6% |
| Finance and insurance | 37,004 | 3.1% |
| Company management | 34,785 | 2.9% |
| Other services | 24,956 | 2.1% |
| Real estate and rental | 13,629 | 1.1% |
| Agriculture and forestry | 12,519 | 1.0% |
| Educational services | 11,873 | 1.0% |
| Arts and entertainment | 11,427 | 0.9% |
| Information | 10,910 | 0.9% |
| Utilities | 7,795 | 0.6% |
| Mining and oil extraction | 3,819 | 0.3% |
Average Weekly Wage by Sector
The sector that pays their employees the highest is
Company management paying $2,212per week compared with the state average of $841.
Utilities ($1,701) and
Wholesale trade ($1,315) round out the top 3 sectors.
Table: Wages by Sector
| Sector | Wkly Wage | vs St Avg. |
|---|
| Company management | $2,212 | 263.0% |
| Utilities | $1,701 | 202.3% |
| Wholesale trade | $1,315 | 156.4% |
| Mining and oil extraction | $1,268 | 150.8% |
| Finance and insurance | $1,253 | 149.0% |
| Professional services | $1,217 | 144.7% |
| Information | $1,035 | 123.1% |
| Manufacturing | $923 | 109.8% |
| Construction | $923 | 109.8% |
| Transport and warehousing | $907 | 107.8% |
| Healthcare | $824 | 98.0% |
| Agriculture and forestry | $808 | 96.1% |
| Real estate and rental | $750 | 89.2% |
| Educational services | $711 | 84.5% |
| Other services | $670 | 79.7% |
| Waste services | $584 | 69.4% |
| Retail trade | $527 | 62.7% |
| Arts and entertainment | $406 | 48.3% |
| Accommodation and food services | $308 | 36.6% |
Leading Industries
Businesses by Industry
Each broad sector is made up of specific industries. In Arkansas. the industry with the most businesses is
Services for the elderly and disabled with 7.5% of the businesses in the state (with 6,773 employing 20,006 workers).
Restaurants and other eating places (5.4%) and
Offices of physicians (2.6%) round out the top 3 industries. The Top 10 Industries in the state are:
| Industry | # Businesses | Emp/Biz |
|---|
| Services for the elderly and disabled | 6,773 | 3.0 |
| Restaurants and other eating places | 4,862 | 18.5 |
| Offices of physicians | 2,321 | 10.9 |
| Wholesale trade agents and brokers | 2,282 | 2.5 |
| Computer systems design and related services | 1,836 | 5.2 |
| Insurance agencies and brokerages | 1,754 | 3.5 |
| Offices of lawyers | 1,513 | 3.2 |
| Gasoline stations with convenience stores | 1,510 | 7.3 |
| Management consulting services | 1,461 | 3.7 |
| Accounting and bookkeeping services | 1,263 | 4.8 |
Employees by Industry
The industry with the greatest number of employees in the state is
Restaurants and other eating places with 7.4% of the businesses in the state. The industry employs 90,007 in 4,862 businesses, there are 18.5 employees on average in each of these businesses.
General medical and surgical hospitals (3.2%) and
Management of companies and enterprises (2.9%) round out the top 3 industries.
Table: Industries by # of Employees
| Industry | # Emp | Emp/Biz |
|---|
| Restaurants and other eating places | 90,007 | 18.5 |
| General medical and surgical hospitals | 38,997 | 464.3 |
| Management of companies and enterprises | 34,785 | 62.1 |
| Animal slaughtering and processing | 32,905 | 416.5 |
| General merchandise stores including warehouse clubs and supercenters | 31,286 | 36.3 |
| Temporary help services | 27,029 | 31.2 |
| Offices of physicians | 25,324 | 10.9 |
| General freight trucking long-distance | 24,723 | 28.2 |
| Nursing care facilities skilled nursing | 22,813 | 81.8 |
| Services for the elderly and disabled | 20,006 | 3.0 |
Average Weekly Wage by Industry
The industry that pays their employees the most is
Securities brokerage, paying $3,067 compared with the state average of $841.
Investment banking and securities dealing ($3,019) and
Portfolio management ($2,770) round out the top 3 industries.
Table: Wages by Industry
| Industry | Wkly Wage | % of Avg |
|---|
| Securities brokerage | $3,067 | 364.7 |
| Investment banking and securities dealing | $3,019 | 359.0 |
| Portfolio management | $2,770 | 329.4 |
| Plastics materials merchant wholesalers | $2,445 | 290.7 |
| Commodity contracts dealing | $2,390 | 284.2 |
| Electric power generation | $2,375 | 282.4 |
| Fish and seafood merchant wholesalers | $2,311 | 274.8 |
| Miscellaneous intermediation | $2,303 | 273.8 |
| Toy and hobby goods merchant wholesalers | $2,217 | 263.6 |
| Management of companies and enterprises | $2,212 | 263.0 |
Company Size
Arkansas Businesses by Size
The
solopreneur company, has the most businesses in Arkansas by far. 62.0% of all businesses in the state have fewer than 5 employees. The 83,220 small businesses in the state represent 96.2% of all private businesses. The national average is 92.6%. (Small businesses have fewer than 50 employees, Solopreneurs employ fewer than 5.) The pie chart below illustrates the ratio of business sizes.
Arkansas Employees by Business Size
The largest companies in the state represent 120.9% of all employees, which is 17.5% lower than the national average of 138.4%. Smallest companies also employ a lower percentage of the states workforce than the largest companies. The
solopreneur (those that employ fewer than 5) companies employ 85.2% of all workers, which is 6.3% lower than the national average of 91.5%. All small companies, those employing fewer than 50 people, represent 548.4% of the labor force in the state, 1.6% less than the national average of 550.0%.
Arkansas Avg Weekly Wages by Business Size
Arkansas workers in every size business are paid less than the national average. The smallest companies in Arkansas (those with fewer than 5 employees) pay workers 13.2% less than the national average ($861 per week as compared to the national average of $975 per week). The largest companies in Arkansas (those with more than 1,000 employees) pay 21.8% workers below the national average ($1,545 per week as compared to the national average of $1,882 per week).
Data Sources
About the Writer
This page was created and is maintained by Kurt Tietjen, Founder of Stavera, High Peak Media & HomeGearWorks.com. Kurt is an executive, data scientist and software engineer who holds an MBA in Management Information Systems. In 2010, he partnered with scientists at Northwestern University to launch The Street Wire. This was one of the first mainstream uses of what would become “Narrative Science”, an artificial intelligence platform specializing in natural language generation. You can contact Kurt on LinkedIn here.