Conway’s Office Economy a Pillar of Employment

Every day in Conway is a day at the office.

Thanks to the makeup of its workforce talent pool and the nature of several of its mainstay businesses, the city thrives at least in part on an office economy.

There are around 5,000 professional and service jobs in Conway, versus 3,400 in manufacturing, making the office economy one of the largest employment sectors. As a seat of higher education and part of a region that includes nearby Little Rock and North Little Rock — the state’s largest metropolitan area — Conway has a renewable pipeline of talent.

Brad Lacy, president and CEO of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce, said the city has been feeding into an office economy at least since the start of Acxiom in 1969.

“Like any sector of the economy, our office economy is completely dependent on the availability of talent,” said Lacy, noting the sector’s average weekly salary is $1,140, or $310 more than the average weekly pay of other sectors.

“The office sector jobs that exist in Conway tend to be highly skilled and highly compensated,” he said.

Conway’s office economy is a point of differentiation from similar sized cities, Lacy said, and is represented in various business segments. But it is primarily seen in professional employers, business services, finance and information.

Employers like Home BancShares, Acxiom, DXC Technology, Insight Enterprises, Ensono and Molex provide the bulk of those jobs.

Of course every industry needs four walls and a door somewhere. Human resources, bookkeeping, accounting, payroll and executive staff all mean there are going to be offices, no matter what the business is.

And, Lacy said, Conway welcomes industrial and manufacturing companies as much as it does the professional entities and financial firms.

“Any other sector will have opportunities for office workers,” Lacy said. “They support all of the sectors, whether it’s the HR professional in a hospital or an engineer supporting a manufacturing entity. It’s also good to have the diversity in the local economy so that we aren’t dependent on any one segment.”

But certainly the office economy looms large on Conway’s economic landscape.

It hinges on Conway’s ability to produce, attract and retain talent — potential limiting factors but factors that the city is clearly able to deal with thanks to its younger skewing talent pool and pipeline to Little Rock.

And the forecast, Lacy said, is for the jobs to continue to be there too, especially as Conway continues to develop and to court new business.

“We should continue to see growth in the sector as companies like Acxiom and DXC expand,” he said. “The city has a good number of office sites for new construction and our focus on developing downtown will offer additional options.”

See more about Conway’s economic growth at Outlook Conway.