Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Gulfport-Biloxi, MS MSA · October 2026
Every advertised-pay, job-posting and industry figure in this briefing comes from WageScape's own database of active job postings. The sources below back the external facts cited in the written analysis.
Sources cited in this report
Key Indicators
Gulfport-Biloxi MSA unemployment rate at 4.1% as of June 2026
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Local Area Unemployment Statistics
Local Economic Conditions
Harrison County average weekly wages rose 6.9% year-over-year in Q4 2025
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — County Employment and Wages (QCEW) data
Professional and Business Services sector grew 6.6% year-over-year through July 2026
Mississippi Department of Employment Security — State & Metro Trends report
Open Threads in the Data
Mississippi labor force participation rate at 54.4% vs 62.2% national
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics / Joint Economic Committee — Labor force participation comparison
Looking Ahead
National nonfarm payrolls added only 29,000 jobs in September 2026
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Employment Situation Summary
Mississippi nonfarm employment reached record 1,199,800 jobs in August 2026
Office of Governor Tate Reeves — State employment announcement
How the numbers are calculated
- Advertised pay is the median of the pay ranges employers publish in active job postings in this metro. It is not survey or payroll data.
- Percent changes compare the latest six full months with the six months before that, for the same metro and sector.
- Sectors group postings by the employer's industry (NAICS) classification into ten sectors. Where a metro has too few postings in a sector, the state figure is used instead.
- Role pay trends use the same comparison windows. "Stable" means a change of less than 3%; "moderate" 3–10%; "significant" more than 10%.
Official data for comparison