Restaurants and Other Eating Places in Arkansas

Restaurants and Other Eating Places (NAICS 7225) in Arkansas reports 95,941 workers across 5,075 establishments, with $1.9B of aggregate annual payroll flowing through Census CBP 2023 filings. That represents 0.8% 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 Restaurants and Other Eating Places employees in Arkansas is $20,086/yr, versus a national average of $24,280/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 Restaurants and Other Eating Places is not reported, 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 Restaurants and Other Eating Places national page (entity structure, SBA lending, sub-industries) and the Arkansas overview (top employers, payroll dispersion across industries).