Jobs and pay in Arkansas

The highest-paying occupations in Arkansas

Sorted by median annual wage — the midpoint of what people in the occupation are paid in this state, not what a newcomer earns. Occupations BLS did not release a wage for are absent rather than shown as zero.

2 further occupations are paid more than every figure below, but BLS publishes them only as $239,200 or more, its reporting cap: emergency medicine physicians, obstetricians and gynecologists. They cannot be ranked against each other, so they are named here rather than listed as identical rows.

1. Dermatologists$422,060
2. Neurologists$317,880
3. Orthopedic surgeons, except pediatric$262,470
4. Ophthalmologists, except pediatric$259,320
5. Surgeons, all other$254,940
6. General internal medicine physicians$233,130
7. Dentists, all other specialists$232,730
8. Nurse anesthetists$224,280
9. Family medicine physicians$215,820
10. Physicians, pathologists$214,100
11. Dentists, general$178,930
12. Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers$168,970
13. Pediatricians, general$160,440
14. Purchasing managers$156,450
15. Architectural and engineering managers$140,600
16. Medical dosimetrists$138,260
17. Physicians, all other$136,880
18. Marketing managers$136,520
19. Pharmacists$136,060
20. Physicists$135,820
21. Sales engineers$130,760
22. Computer and information systems managers$127,220
23. Nurse practitioners$125,660
24. Health specialties teachers, postsecondary$124,890
25. Psychiatrists$124,750

Where the jobs actually are in Arkansas

The same list sorted by how many people are employed in each occupation, which is a different question from what it pays and usually a more useful one. High pay in an occupation employing 400 people statewide is a narrower opportunity than it looks.

1. Fast food and counter workers35,660 employed
2. Retail salespersons35,510 employed
3. General and operations managers34,570 employed
4. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers32,220 employed
5. Office clerks, general29,940 employed
6. Registered nurses29,400 employed
7. Stockers and order fillers28,350 employed
8. Cashiers28,270 employed
9. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand21,430 employed
10. Customer service representatives20,680 employed
11. Home health and personal care aides19,840 employed
12. Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners19,490 employed
13. Waiters and waitresses17,880 employed
14. Nursing assistants17,260 employed
15. First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers13,630 employed
16. Secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education12,890 employed
17. Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products12,740 employed
18. Elementary school teachers, except special education12,590 employed
19. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks12,510 employed
20. Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators12,460 employed
21. Maintenance and repair workers, general12,410 employed
22. Cooks, restaurant11,270 employed
23. Teaching assistants, except postsecondary11,270 employed
24. First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers11,200 employed
25. First-line supervisors of retail sales workers11,050 employed

The best-paid Arkansas work that typically needs no bachelor's degree

Occupations BLS reports as typically entered with an associate's degree, a postsecondary certificate, some college, a high-school diploma, or no formal credential — sorted by what they pay here. Typical is not a requirement, individual employers set their own, and many of these carry state licensing that the national figure does not capture.

1. Power distributors and dispatchers$117,370 · High school diploma or equivalent
2. Air traffic controllers$109,760 · Associate's degree
3. Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation, and relay$101,120 · Postsecondary nondegree award
4. Gas plant operators$100,870 · High school diploma or equivalent
5. Postmasters and mail superintendents$97,880 · High school diploma or equivalent
6. Power plant operators$97,760 · High school diploma or equivalent
7. Commercial pilots$94,410 · Postsecondary nondegree award
8. Health information technologists and medical registrars$93,300 · Associate's degree
9. Chemical plant and system operators$91,610 · High school diploma or equivalent
10. Transportation, storage, and distribution managers$89,200 · High school diploma or equivalent
11. Dental hygienists$86,760 · Associate's degree
12. Petroleum pump system operators, refinery operators, and gaugers$86,580 · High school diploma or equivalent
13. Transportation inspectors$85,130 · High school diploma or equivalent
14. Nuclear medicine technologists$83,670 · Associate's degree
15. Diagnostic medical sonographers$81,500 · Associate's degree
16. Electrical power-line installers and repairers$81,450 · High school diploma or equivalent
17. Radiation therapists$78,950 · Associate's degree
18. Occupational therapy assistants$78,940 · Associate's degree
19. Locomotive engineers$78,930 · High school diploma or equivalent
20. Magnetic resonance imaging technologists$78,780 · Associate's degree
21. Gambling managers$77,860 · High school diploma or equivalent
22. Boilermakers$76,810 · High school diploma or equivalent
23. Cardiovascular technologists and technicians$74,800 · Associate's degree
24. Claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators$73,920 · High school diploma or equivalent
25. Respiratory therapists$73,870 · Associate's degree

A certificate is a different credential from a degree, not a lesser one. CampusPin publishes the national picture of pay by entry education and which fields are actually awarded as certificates rather than degrees.

What Arkansas does more of than the rest of the country

Location quotient: this occupation's share of Arkansas employment divided by its share of U.S. employment. 2.0 means twice as concentrated here as nationally. It describes where the work IS — not what it pays, and not how easy it is to be hired. Limited to occupations employing at least 500 people in the state, so a tiny base cannot manufacture a large ratio.

Graders and sorters, agricultural products lead, much more concentrated here than nationally.

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