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STRATUSWORKFORCE SCAN
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Nonmetro area, Arkansas

East Arkansas nonmetropolitan area

68,080 people work in this area, at mean pay of $47,660 a year (BLS, May 2025), in every industry. What follows is how much of their working time the best AI models could finish, when, and in which jobs and tasks. Estimates.

now
21%

of the paid hours. Estimate.

$852M

a year: 26 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.

Kinds of work
  • 30%
  • 17%
  • 54%
4%

of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 17% is within reach in tasks not yet seen there.

Across the US: 22% within reach now and 37% by the end of 2028, on the long-run pace at four in five.

Share of the paid hours within reach, now to 2030

0%25%50%75%100%2027202820292030NowDesk work: 30% of the time
Chosen to Ceiling: the share
DateNow
NowEnd of 2030

What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .

How far this has come

With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this area's paid hours were within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 2%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 19%. Today's estimate: 21%.

0%10%20%30%2023202420252026GPT-4, March 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4 Turbo (Nov 2023), November 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4o, May 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (June 2024), June 2024: 0% within reacho1-preview, September 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (Oct 2024), October 2024: 0% within reacho1, December 2024: 1% within reachClaude 3.7 Sonnet, February 2025: 2% within reacho3, April 2025: 6% within reachGPT-5, August 2025: 8% within reachGemini 3 Pro, November 2025: 10% within reachClaude Opus 4.5, November 2025: 10% within reachGPT-5.2, December 2025: 12% within reachClaude Opus 4.6, February 2026: 12% within reachClaude Mythos Preview (early), April 2026: 19% within reachToday (estimate), September 2026: 21% within reach
Each step is a new best model measured by METR, four in five; the dashed end is today's estimate. Point at a dot for the model.

A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.

Where the hours are

Jobs by hours within reach now. The 40 largest jobs hold 57% of the people.

People: BLS counts for this area, May 2025. Pay here: the median paid for the job in this area, else its mean, else the national median. 226 smaller jobs (25,810 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 89% of the area's people; the rest are in BLS "all other" groups with no task list, or in counts BLS does not publish.

The tasks with the most hours within reach by the end of 2028

Across the whole area, on the chosen pace and reliability.

  1. Compute, record, and proofread data and other information, such as records or reports.Office Clerks, General
    398,253 hours100% of the task within reach
  2. Keep periodic balance sheets of amounts and numbers of transactions.Cashiers
    272,015 hours100% of the task within reach
  3. Plan and establish work schedules, assignments, and production sequences to meet production goals.First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers
    239,317 hours100% of the task within reach
  4. Maintain and update filing, inventory, mailing, and database systems, either manually or using a computer.Office Clerks, General
    221,873 hours80% of the task within reach
  5. Plan and develop new products and production processes.First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers
    213,512 hours67% of the task within reach
  6. Direct and coordinate activities of businesses or departments concerned with the production, pricing, sales, or distribution of products.General and Operations Managers
    202,034 hours40% of the task within reach
  7. Record numbers of units handled or moved, using daily production sheets or work tickets.Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand
    197,773 hours100% of the task within reach
  8. Compile and maintain non-monetary reports and records.Cashiers
    193,824 hours100% of the task within reach
  9. Set prices or credit terms for goods or services, based on forecasts of customer demand.General and Operations Managers
    193,149 hours100% of the task within reach
  10. Type, format, proofread, and edit correspondence and other documents, from notes or dictating machines, using computers or typewriters.Office Clerks, General
    189,635 hours100% of the task within reach

Other areas in Arkansas

Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.

How it is built: BLS counts the people in each job in this area; each job's tasks and their lengths give its share within reach at a date; the area's share is those shares weighted by people. Value is pay times 1.43 for benefits and payroll costs. Seen in Claude use splits today's share by whether Anthropic saw people bring each task to Claude in 2025; other AI tools are not counted. How it works