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Arkansas jobs and job market: layoffs, colleges and workforce help

Arkansas’s unemployment rate is 3.9%. 1,415 open professional jobs are listed here. Employers filed 0 layoff notices in the last 12 months. Choose a county or city for the same picture closer to home.

Independent page. Not from or affiliated with the State of Arkansas.

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Arkansas economy

  • 3.9%

    unemployment, Sep 2026

    4.2% the month before

  • 1,459,190

    in the labor force

    Source: BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics

  • 3,032,651

    people in Arkansas

    Source: U.S. Census Bureau

  • $58,773

    median household income

    Source: Census ACS

  • 36%

    of workers in white-collar occupations

    Management, business, financial and professional; Census ACS

Arkansas outlook: Building

Built from public Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census figures. It describes the area, not any one employer in it.

  • Private-sector jobs up 4.2% from 2022 to 2025
  • Population up 3.3% from 2020 to 2025
  • Unemployment 3.7%, down 0.5 points from a year ago
  • Sectors adding the most jobs: health care (+15,028 jobs), hotels & food (+7,325 jobs)
  • Sectors losing the most jobs: manufacturing (−5,255 jobs), information (−764 jobs)

Learn and get funded in Arkansas

Arkansas layoffs

No layoff notices naming Arkansas in the last 12 months are on file. The WARN Act covers employers with 100 or more workers, so smaller layoffs are not in it.

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One email a day at most, only when there is something new. No account needed.

Employers hiring most in Arkansas

Employers with the most open professional roles on our job board right now.

  1. Walmart116 open roles
  2. Tyson Foods88 open roles
  3. L3HARRIS Technologies53 open roles
  4. State of Arkansas46 open roles
  5. Bank OZK24 open roles
  6. General Dynamics OTS23 open roles
  7. Harris Health Strategic Fund22 open roles
  8. Murphy USA22 open roles
  9. University of Arkansas at Little Rock17 open roles
  10. Simmons Bank14 open roles
  11. University of Arkansas13 open roles
  12. Vinci13 open roles

Largest employers headquartered in Arkansas

Employee counts with a year are published figures (Wikidata). Other sizes are estimates from our company directory, not payroll counts.

Higher education in Arkansas

  • 27

    public and private non-profit colleges

    Source: IPEDS, U.S. Department of Education

  • about 178,000

    students enrolled

    Estimated from size bands

Largest colleges in Arkansas

Largest colleges in Arkansas
CollegeCityTypeStudents
University of ArkansasFayettevillePublic 4-year20,000+
Arkansas State UniversityJonesboroPublic 4-year10,000–19,999
University of Central ArkansasConwayPublic 4-year10,000–19,999
Arkansas Tech UniversityRussellvillePublic 4-year5,000–9,999
University of Arkansas at Little RockLittle RockPublic 4-year5,000–9,999
University of Arkansas GranthamLIttle RockPublic 4-year5,000–9,999
University of Arkansas-Fort SmithFort SmithPublic 4-year5,000–9,999
Harding UniversitySearcyPrivate non-profit 4-year1,000–4,999
Henderson State UniversityArkadelphiaPublic 4-year1,000–4,999
Hendrix CollegeConwayPrivate non-profit 4-year1,000–4,999
John Brown UniversitySiloam SpringsPrivate non-profit 4-year1,000–4,999
Ouachita Baptist UniversityArkadelphiaPrivate non-profit 4-year1,000–4,999

All 27 Arkansas colleges

Workforce development and job centers

The public workforce board and American Job Centers serving Arkansas. They offer free help with job search, training and filing for benefits.

Laid off in Arkansas? How to file for unemployment in Arkansas (steps, weekly amount and the appeal deadline).

21 American Job Centers in Arkansas

Job fairs and business events in Arkansas

Hiring events, career workshops, small-business counseling and startup events from chambers, job centers, workforce boards, colleges and economic-development groups in Arkansas.

Conferences in Arkansas

Industry conferences and trade shows held in Arkansas, the ones worth a trip for hiring managers and job seekers. 3 with dates announced.

All conferences

Arkansas counties

Each county page has its own unemployment, layoffs, job openings, employers, colleges and job centers.

Show all 75

Arkansas cities

Cities with open jobs, layoff notices, a job center or a college.

Show all 46

Laid off or looking for work in Arkansas?

See what to do first, what Arkansas unemployment benefits pay, and the jobs open near you.

See your options after a layoff

Sources: Census Bureau and BLS for population, income and unemployment; layoff notices from Arkansas’s published record; job counts from our live job board, taken from employers’ own career sites; IPEDS for colleges; CareerOneStop for workforce boards and job centers. Arkansas unemployment benefits and severance rules.

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