Manufacturing in Arkansas Runs 11% Below the National Cost Average

Arkansas's manufacturing cost index stands at 89.5 against a national 100 as of July 2026 — labor at 92.6 and industrial energy at 80.2. That places it fourth cheapest of 51 jurisdictions.

• composite (US = 100): 89.5
• labor: 92.6
• industrial energy: 80.2

The composite weights labor at 75% and industrial electricity at 25%, so Arkansas's position is mostly an energy story: its energy component indexes at 80.2 against the national 100. A discount of 11 points compounds differently across shops — a labor-heavy job shop feels the labor line, an energy-hungry process plant feels the kilowatt-hours.

For a site decision the index is the starting point, not the answer: freight to customers, workforce depth, and incentives move individual cases. The per-state page carries the underlying wage and electricity series this index is built from, both refreshed automatically.