Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Jackson, 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
This Month's Takeaways
Hinds County employment declined 1.2% year-over-year through Q3 2025
Bureau of Labor Statistics — County Employment and Wages data for Hinds County, Mississippi
Jackson average weekly wage of $1,123 vs. U.S. average of $1,654
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Jackson, MS Area Economic Summary, Q1 2026
Local Economic Conditions
Jackson MSA unemployment fell to 3% in September from 3.8% in July
Mississippi Today — Reporting on Jackson MSA September 2026 unemployment data
Labor force participation rate dropped to 54.7% from 55.7% year-over-year
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Jackson, MS Area Economic Summary, September 2026
Looking Ahead
Mississippi labor force participation at 54.4% vs. national 62.2%
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — State labor force participation comparison, 2026
National wage growth slowed to 3.0% against 3.4% inflation
Bureau of Labor Statistics / BLS Real Earnings — National average hourly earnings and CPI data, September 2026
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