Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Pine Bluff, 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
Jefferson County unemployment rate at 5.5% as of April 2026
FRED / Bureau of Labor Statistics — County-level unemployment data
This Month's Takeaways
Jefferson County average weekly wage of $1,059 vs U.S. $1,569
BLS County Employment and Wages Report — Q4 2025 county wage data
Pine Bluff no longer designated a metropolitan statistical area as of 2025
U.S. Office of Management and Budget — MSA designation change affecting metro-level BLS reporting
Local Economic Conditions
Arkansas unemployment at 3.9% in August 2026
Arkansas Department of Commerce — State unemployment release, September 18, 2026
Open Threads in the Data
11,237 Jefferson County residents inactive in labor force, 30% of working-age population
Aspire Arkansas / BLS data — Labor force participation analysis
Looking Ahead
National wage growth at 3.0% annual, below 3.4% inflation
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