The Little Rock economy offers stability and security with abundant job opportunities in the professional, education, service and industrial sectors.
The recent revitalization of the downtown area has attracted major corporations in transportation, services, and manufacturing. Little Rock benefits from this economic diversity in the form of continued growth and expansion in housing, urban revitalization and infrastructure development.
And with a relatively low cost of living–about 91% of the national average–Little Rock is a very affordable place to live.
Cost of living in Little Rock in 2022 according to Numbeo.com, an independent cost of living database:
- Four-person family monthly costs: $2,784.93 without rent.
- A single person monthly costs: $800.97 without rent.
- Cost of living index in Little Rock is 39.69% lower than in New York.
- Cost of living rank 296th out of 586 cities in the world.
- Little Rock has a cost-of-living index of 60.31.
Industrial Growth
The top three industrial job sectors in the Little Rock Metro area are:
- Biotechnology. UAMS is the center of biotechnology research in Arkansas. The medical school also supports local start-up biotechnology companies that help to invigorate the local economy.
- Aviation. In the state of Arkansas, the aviation and aerospace industry is spread across 100 companies and 10,000 employees. Concentrated in Little Rock and Hot Springs, this industry accounted for $1 billion in exports in 2006.
- Agriculture. On the whole, Arkansas is primarily a farming state. Rice, soybeans, timber and poultry are the state’s biggest agricultural exports and Little Rock claims a prime trade location on the Arkansas River.
UAMS (including affiliates) is one of the largest employers in the city. Other major employers include Acxiom, Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Raytheon Aircraft Company, and Entergy.
In addition, the area’s hospitals, clinics, and banks attract other corporations that offer technical supporting services. And like any other metro area, teachers, therapists, accountants and nurses are all in high demand.
Job Listing Sites
In addition to popular worldwide job service sites such as CareerBuilder and Monster, several locally-focused websites offer job searches for the Little Rock area.
Arkansas Online offers a detailed search and relevant results with no registration required unless the user wants to save job listings or upload a resume. Arkansas Online is a service of Little Rock’s largest newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Other options include Arkansas Jobs and Jobs in Little Rock.