Manufacturing in Mississippi Runs 13% Below the National Cost Average

Mississippi's manufacturing cost index stands at 87.4 against a national 100 as of July 2026 — labor at 90.4 and industrial energy at 78.4. That places it second cheapest of 51 jurisdictions.

• composite (US = 100): 87.4
• labor: 90.4
• industrial energy: 78.4

The composite weights labor at 75% and industrial electricity at 25%, so Mississippi's position is mostly an energy story: its energy component indexes at 78.4 against the national 100. A discount of 13 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.