Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · AR NONMETROPOLITAN AREA · October 2026
Every advertised-pay, job-posting and industry figure in this briefing comes from WageScape's own database of active job postings. The sources below back the external facts cited in the written analysis.
Sources cited in this report
This Month's Takeaways
August payroll gains concentrated in government and education/health services
Arkansas Department of Commerce — Nonfarm payroll breakdown, August 2026
Labor force participation rate at 59.1%, down 0.1 point in August
Arkansas Department of Commerce — State labor force participation data
Local Economic Conditions
Arkansas unemployment rate fell to 3.9% in August 2026
Arkansas Department of Commerce — State labor market data release, Sept 18, 2026
County-level unemployment rates for Desha, Phillips, Benton, Madison counties
Arkansas Department of Commerce — County unemployment data, September 2026
Looking Ahead
National payroll growth slowed to 29,000 in September with downward revisions
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National employment situation report
Arkansas WARN notices not publicly available under state law
Arkansas Code Annotated — A.C.A. § 11-10-314 statutory provision
How the numbers are calculated
- Advertised pay is the median of the pay ranges employers publish in active job postings in this metro. It is not survey or payroll data.
- Percent changes compare the latest six full months with the six months before that, for the same metro and sector.
- Sectors group postings by the employer's industry (NAICS) classification into ten sectors. Where a metro has too few postings in a sector, the state figure is used instead.
- Role pay trends use the same comparison windows. "Stable" means a change of less than 3%; "moderate" 3–10%; "significant" more than 10%.
Official data for comparison