NWA Job Market Report

September 2026

Final figures, data as of September 30, 2026.

About this month's data

On September 13 we removed postings dated before 2026 and switched off 17 employer sources that had stopped working. Changes from August reflect our coverage as much as hiring.

Until October 12 our data included listings re-posted from job boards such as Indeed and ZipRecruiter (about 130 at a time). They're counted in this month's active postings, and the companies named in them inflate the employer count.

Because our coverage changed, this report doesn't show month-over-month changes.

Active postings

2,947

New postings

1,295

Employers hiring

219

Postings showing pay

49%

Advertised Pay

Pay figures split into hourly and salaried roles start with the October 2026 report. Earlier versions of this page showed a single “median advertised salary” that combined hourly pay (annualized) with salaried pay. Most salaried postings are Walmart corporate roles, so that figure overstated typical pay, and we've withdrawn it.

Top Hiring Employers

Hiring by Category

City Breakdown

CityActive Postings
Bentonville987
Fayetteville664
Springdale578
Rogers219
Siloam Springs152
Region-wide (no town listed)111
Lowell107
Gentry38
NWACC25
Tontitown18
Centerton12
Johnson6

Charts & Data

Each chart carries its date and source. Use them in your own reporting with attribution to NWA Job Search.

Download this month's data (CSV)

How to cite

NWA Job Search, "NWA Job Market Report — September 2026," nwajobsearch.com/reports/2026-09 (data as of September 30, 2026).

Methodology, corrections and custom data requests: see press & data.

Methodology

Figures are computed from job postings collected daily from the career sites of Northwest Arkansas employers (Walmart, Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt, hospitals, cities, school districts and dozens more). We don't include listings re-posted by job boards such as Indeed or ZipRecruiter.

Active postings, employers and pay come from the last daily snapshot of the month (2026-09-30). New postings are openings we first saw during the month, counted once each. Postings the employer had listed more than 14 days before we found them (for example, when we add a new employer) don't count as new.

Pay uses the midpoint of each advertised range. Hourly and salaried roles are reported separately, because one combined figure is dominated by whichever group is larger. Postings that don't list pay are left out of pay figures. Where one employer posts most of a group, we name it and give the median without it.

Free to cite with attribution to NWA Job Search. Explore the live data in the NWA salary explorer.