Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Fort Smith, AR-OK MSA · 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
Key Indicators
Arkansas unemployment rate at 3.9% in August 2026
Arkansas Department of Commerce — State labor force statistics release, Sept 18 2026
Fort Smith average weekly wage of $1,066 vs U.S. $1,569
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — QCEW wage data, Q4 2025
This Month's Takeaways
Fort Smith nonfarm payroll employment decline moderating through April 2026
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Nonfarm wage and salary employment, 12-month change
Arkansas labor force participation rate at 59.1%
Arkansas Department of Commerce — State labor force statistics release, Sept 2026
Local Economic Conditions
Fort Smith preliminary unemployment rate of 4.5% in July 2026
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Fort Smith AR-OK MSA Area Economic Summary
Looking Ahead
National WARN filings concentrated among logistics/manufacturing employers
Newsweek / LayoffAlert.org — WARN Act notice tracking, September 2026
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