Best High Demand Jobs and Low Cost of Living in Conway, the City of Colleges and American Idol Winner Kris Allen

Some of the Best Places in America for work and living are college towns. One of these is both a hot spot for students and retires - Gainesville. You find these places throughout the nation while searching for schools and work. Some are attractive to new business because of lower or no state taxes and tax incentives to new companies. This is especially true of towns and cities that have federally designated Enterprise Zones like that in NYC for commercial and residential development.

Hewlett Packard brought hundreds of job openings with them to Arkansas when they opened their 150,000 square-foot facility in Conway, Arkansas in 2009. Acxiom Corporation is the leading IT company in Conway, however, and the largest employer overall with an employee pool of at least 2,300 people.

Conway is home to 16 manufacturing companies, including big names like Kimberly Clark, Snap-On, Virco, and International Paper.

Oil & Natural Gas are major contributors to the economny through at least four major companies: Southwestern Energy, Schlumberger, Saxon Drilling, and Cudd Energy Services. Since 2010 we have heard about oil and natural gas discoveries and ramp ups for production in North Dakota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania; but Conway holds a natural gas deposit that can produce hundreds of new jobs in short order, once development begins.

The Conway Development Corporation maintains a website that is better than most development corporation sites I have seen in the last 15 years.

In keeping with regional sports culture, one small business in Conway is called The Hog Zone, specializing in sports-related items for parties and other gatherings. The Hog Zone on Facebook

Other businesses in Downtown Conway have been improved, with 10 major buildings refurbished between 2006 - 2010. Streets and sidewalks have also been under reconstruction to upgrade this Enterprise-type zone. Hewett-Packard is one of the corporate partners in this ongoing project that began ion 2001, along with 50+ others. Eight Season Winner of American Idol Kris Allen, lives in Downtown Conway already and additional living spaces are under construction.

In addition to living spaces, new businesses include shops, clubs (the county is "dry", though - no alcohol served), service agencies, a Christmas store, dining opportunities, business services, and several others - including the fun of Arkansas Portable Toilets. You have to see their trucks: http://arportabletoilets.com/index.asp

Development in the Downtown urban area is spurred more heavily by the participation of small private businesses than by government participation, although the City of Conway is a partner in the ongoing development project.

Conway, Arkansas offers a lower cost of living index than most of the other communities in the US, but not an incredible abundance of jobs to go with it. However, nearly 4,700 job listings were available on the Internet for this area in a snapshot of mid-February 2012. The salaries of half of these listed job vacancies ranged between $40K - 79K/year. With a lower cost of living than the national average, these higher salaries will go even farther in their spending power.

Most of the available jobs listed in this snapshot involve customer and business services, with a large number in management, health, and Information Technology..

1. Faculty Members- University of Phoenix
   
2. McDonald's McCafé Crew
3. Baristas and related Shift Supervisors
4. Pizza Hut Jobs: Shift Managers, Assistant Managers, Team Members, Drivers, General Managers
5. Trucking - Owner Operators
6. Assistant Managers - Fields other than food service.
7. Cashiers
8. Event Specialists
9. Store Managers
10. Product Data Specialists
11. Field Compliance Operators and other Engineers
12. AT&T Full-Time Retail Sales
13. Multi-Skilled Assistants
14. Surgical Technologists
15. Healthcare support jobs - Certified Nursing Assistants and others.

The most frequently hiring employers in the Conway area include those in Little Rock, which is fewer than 25 miles to the southeast. These companies are:

• Whole Foods Market, which is purchasing many smaller health-food stores and markets in the 2010s;
• Hewlett Packard and Acxiom;
• Rush Trucking, United Vision Logistics, Builders Transport, and Gordon Trucking;
• AT&T;
• Lighthouse Academies;
• US National Guard;
• Southwestern Energy;
• Caterpillar - Equipment and trucks;
• Dining places like McDonald's, Pizza Hit, Taco Bell, and Cracker Barrel;
• Wyzant Tutoring,
• Crossmark;
• Conway Regional Health, Advanced Medical, Children's' Hospital, Baptist Health;
• Little Rock City Government;
• Staffmark; and
• Kelly Services.

• Arthur's Beauty School of Arkansas www.arthursbeautycollege.com/
• BMA Seminary 1501 College Avenue in Conway AR. Next to Central Baptist College.
• Central Baptist College www.cbc.edu/
• Conway OB-GYN College www.conwayobgyn.com/ Next to the College park Family Clinic.
• Conway Vocational Center (public school) 2300 Prince Street AR.
• Hendrix College www.hendrix,edu/
• University of Central Arkansas www.uca.edu