TradeAtlas · Trade Market Report

Arkansas

Data through June 2026Published August 2026Digest g0.1 · Provisional

Compiled from BLS, Census, Indeed Hiring Lab. Government statistics publish on a lag, so the latest month shown trails the calendar; every figure carries its own “data through” date.

This is the most recent edition. Newer government data for this state has not been published yet.

This month

Hiring and the pipeline are moving in opposite directions: employment rose 0.6% while permits fell 15.9%. Permits lead construction hiring by roughly a year, so this is the kind of gap that shows up in payrolls later. BLS · Census Job postings across all industries in Arkansas fell 9.3% year over year. Indeed Hiring Lab Electrical is the tightest trade in Arkansas this month, with a Trade Demand Index of 50.4. TDI

01 · Indicators

Construction employment
66,800
+0.6% YoY
BLS · Jun 2026
Building permits
1,095
−15.9% YoY
Census · Jun 2026
Unemployment
4.1%
+2.5% YoY
BLS · Jun 2026
Job postings index
110.0
−9.3% YoY
Indeed Hiring Lab · Jun 2026

02 · Tightest trades in Arkansas

Explore every trade and state →
#TradeIndexVs. 50 states
1Electrical50.4Surplus
2General Contracting49.5Surplus
3HVAC45.6Surplus
4Flooring39.6Surplus
5Garage Doors39.0Surplus
6Plumbing38.4Surplus
7Pest Control36.7Balanced
8Landscaping34.7Surplus
9Pool & Spa34.0Surplus
10Fencing32.3Surplus
11Windows & Doors31.9Surplus
12Fire Protection30.1Surplus
13Roofing29.6Surplus
14Concrete & Masonry29.4Surplus
15Solar27.8Surplus
16Cleaning & Restoration27.4Surplus
17Painting26.4Surplus
18Insulation23.5Surplus
19Appliance Repair18.9Surplus
20Locksmith9.0Surplus

Index 0–100, methodology v0.2 · Band is this state’s percentile among the 50 states for that trade · Wages adjusted by BEA regional price parity

03 · Desks

Jobs

Open roles and hiring momentum in this market.

Arkansas in the Trade Demand Index →
Projects

Federal construction awards and permit activity.

Coming in a later edition
Policy

Licensing, wage and safety rules changing in this state.

Contractor licensing by state →
Companies

Contractors active in this market.

Company directory →
Sources in this edition
  • BLS · Construction employment, seasonally adjusted (BLS CES, via FRED) · through 2026-06
  • Census · Private housing units authorized by permit (Census BPS, via FRED) · through 2026-06
  • BLS · Unemployment rate (BLS LAUS, via FRED) · through 2026-06
  • Indeed Hiring Lab · Job-postings index, all sectors (Indeed Hiring Lab, CC BY 4.0) · through 2026-06
  • TradeAtlas · Trade Demand Index, methodology v0.2 — how it is built
Colophon

This product uses the FRED® API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. This product uses Census Bureau data but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau. Employment and unemployment data are published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job-postings data © Indeed Hiring Lab, CC BY 4.0. Every sentence above is a fixed template filled from those series; the numbers behind each one are published with it. The report is TradeAtlas’s own derivative product; no source named here endorses it.

Edition 2026-06 · digest g0.1 · computed 2026-08-25