Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR 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
Metro unemployment rate at 4.2% in July 2026 (preliminary)
Arkansas Department of Commerce — County and MSA unemployment data
This Month's Takeaways
County unemployment rates ranging from 3.4% (Saline) to 6.3% (Jefferson)
Arkansas Department of Commerce — September 2026 county-level labor statistics
National wage growth at 3.0% annually vs 3.4% inflation, weakest since May 2021
Bureau of Labor Statistics — September 2026 average hourly earnings and CPI data
Arkansas Q1 2026 average weekly wage up 4.6% year-over-year
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Q1 2026
Local Economic Conditions
Civilian employment above 385,000, labor force topped 400,000 in July 2026
Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce / Talk Business & Politics — Metro employment and labor force milestone report
Looking Ahead
September payroll growth of 29,000 with 60,000 in downward revisions
Bureau of Labor Statistics — September 2026 employment situation report
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