Grocery Stores in Arkansas

Grocery Stores (NAICS 4451) in Arkansas reports 20,076 workers across 628 establishments, with $495.6M of aggregate annual payroll flowing through Census CBP 2023 filings. That represents 0.7% of national employment for this industry, a concentration ratio that tells you whether Arkansas is a primary labor market for this NAICS code or a smaller satellite. A share above 5% signals a meaningful regional cluster; below 1% usually means the state is not a structural fit for this industry at scale.

Wage benchmarking is where state-level data earns its keep. The average annual compensation for Grocery Stores employees in Arkansas is $24,686/yr, versus a national average of $29,496/yr. Arkansas pays below the national average for this industry, common in lower cost-of-living states or where the industry has a smaller, less specialized local workforce.

Profitability data is only available at the national level because the IRS Statistics of Income program does not publish state-level margin breakdowns. The national net profit margin for Grocery Stores is 2.8%, and while margins do vary by state, the direction of variance usually follows labor cost and establishment size, both shown above. For a complete picture, pair this state-industry view with the Grocery Stores national page (entity structure, SBA lending, sub-industries) and the Arkansas overview (top employers, payroll dispersion across industries).