Cooks, restaurant job market in Mississippi
Industry trends, wages and hiring signals.
The headline
Mississippi industry employment tracked close to the U.S. benchmark
A data-driven view of the industries that employ Cooks, restaurant in Mississippi.
Occupation pay
What Cooks, restaurant earn in Mississippi
BLS OEWS occupation-level pay estimates for this role — separate from the industry wage trends used elsewhere in this report.
Median annual wage
$29,560Mississippi- Middle 50% of published wages
- $26,000 – $33,940
- U.S. median annual wage
- $37,390
- Reference period
- May 2025
The middle 50% is the 25th-to-75th percentile wage range, not an experience-level band. Suppressed or unavailable BLS values remain unpublished rather than being estimated.
Pay around Mississippi
How median pay varies by metro area
Published BLS OEWS metro estimates for Cooks, restaurant, compared with the Mississippi median of $29,560.
Memphis, TN-MS-AR$36,340+22.9% vs. state
Gulfport-Biloxi, MS$30,590+3.5% vs. state
Hattiesburg, MS$29,360−0.7% vs. state
Jackson, MS$29,260−1.0% vs. state
Areas are ordered by published median wage for readability, not as an overall job-market ranking. The vertical marker is the Mississippi median. Some BLS metropolitan areas cross state lines, so a metro estimate can cover workers in more than one state.
Verified snapshot
Market at a Glance
Key changes in Mississippi’s weighted industry mix.
Percentage-point gaps use the original published values and are rounded once; subtracting the rounded percentages can give a slightly different result.
Published coverage: 8,184 represented establishments, 96.14% of the published industry mix.
Local research
What the data shows for cooks, restaurant in Mississippi
Findings describe the published observation periods shown below. Research published Oct 11, 2026.
Published median pay is below the U.S. median
OEWS May 2025 records a state median annual wage of $29,560 for cooks, restaurant in Mississippi. Against the national median of $37,390, that is 20.9% lower. A median describes the middle of the distribution and does not include a living-cost adjustment.
OEWS May 2025 · BLS OEWSFindings describe published data and do not establish causes. Methodology
Employment trends
Mississippi industry employment over time
Year-over-year change in the weighted industries. The U.S. line is the latest-quarter benchmark because a comparable national quarterly history is not published here.
- Mississippi · 2026 Q1+0.3%
- U.S. · latest-quarter benchmark+0.6%
The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.
View every published value
| Quarter | Mississippi | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 Q2 | +0.9% | 100% |
| 2024 Q3 | +0.5% | 100% |
| 2024 Q4 | +0.7% | 100% |
| 2025 Q1 | -0.3% | 100% |
| 2025 Q2 | +0.6% | 100% |
| 2025 Q3 | +0.3% | 100% |
| 2025 Q4 | +0.8% | 100% |
| 2026 Q1 | +0.3% | 100% |
How to read this chart
State trend and national reference
The solid line follows Mississippi’s published year-over-year industry employment changes by quarter. The dashed U.S. line is a latest-quarter reference, not a second time series.
- Published quarters
- 8
- Earliest quarter
- 2024 Q2
- Latest quarter
- 2026 Q1
- U.S. benchmark
- +0.6%
Quarters with no published value are omitted rather than interpolated.
Industry context
Where Cooks, restaurant Work
The occupation mix determines which Mississippi industries are weighted into this view.
| Industry group | Occupation mix | Employment change | Establishments | Avg. weekly industry wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leisure and hospitality | 96.0% | +0.3% | 8,184 | $440 |
| Trade, transportation, and utilities | 0.9% | +0.7% | 22,394 | $985 |
| State and local | 0.7% | -0.5% | 2,904 | $981 |
| Manufacturing | 0.7% | -1.7% | 2,404 | $1,284 |
| Other services | 0.6% | -0.1% | 5,527 | $911 |
| Professional and business services | 0.6% | +1.2% | 20,385 | $1,200 |
Which industries are growing?
3 weighted industries are growing
Only weighted industries with a published positive Mississippi employment change are listed.
- Professional and business services+1.2%
- Trade, transportation, and utilities+0.7%
- Leisure and hospitality+0.3%
The remaining weighted industries published a flat or negative change in January to March 2026.
Current Mississippi context
Current Mississippi Market Signals
Statewide indicators for all occupations in Mississippi. They are not Cooks, restaurant demand and are not part of the Job Market Health score.
Statewide job postings
Indeed job postings · Mississippi
Recent hiring-demand context · separate from the health score
Total postings index (seasonally adjusted) by observation date · baseline 100
The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.
View values: Indeed postings index
| Observation date | Index (Feb 2020 = 100) |
|---|---|
| Jul 24, 2026 | 119.67 |
| Jul 31, 2026 | 118.90 |
| Aug 7, 2026 | 118.68 |
| Aug 14, 2026 | 118.60 |
| Aug 21, 2026 | 118.87 |
| Aug 28, 2026 | 120.05 |
| Sep 4, 2026 | 121.72 |
| Sep 11, 2026 | 122.40 |
| Sep 18, 2026 | 121.65 |
| Sep 25, 2026 | 121.99 |
| Oct 2, 2026 | 123.06 |
| Oct 9, 2026 | 123.93 |
| Oct 16, 2026 | 124.97 |
| Oct 23, 2026 | 125.93 |
This is statewide demand across all occupations, not demand for this specific job. Postings are not a count of vacancies or hires, and Indeed does not cover the entire labor market.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab · CC BY 4.0. Seven-day average, seasonally adjusted; publisher refreshes weekly and may revise history. Retrieved Nov 1, 2026 · saved source copy. JobMarketHealth calculates the displayed changes and samples weekly observations for the chart.
Career context
Related occupations
Related roles from the occupation’s published O*NET profile.
Questions answered by this release
Cooks, restaurant in Mississippi FAQs
Each answer is limited to what QCEW 2026 Q1 actually publishes for this state.
Is employment growing for Cooks, restaurant in Mississippi?
The available QCEW measure is not direct occupation employment. Employment across the Mississippi industries weighted to Cooks, restaurant changed +0.3% year over year in January to March 2026, compared with +0.6% nationwide.
Are wages for Cooks, restaurant rising in Mississippi?
QCEW does not publish pay for Cooks, restaurant in this view. Average weekly wages across the weighted industries changed +1.9% year over year; that must not be read as an occupation salary change.
How complete is this Mississippi industry view?
The three core state trends each meet the site’s coverage floor; the minimum published coverage is 100% of the occupation’s industry mix.
Does this page show current Cooks, restaurant openings?
No. QCEW measures industry employment, establishments and wages. Any postings, news or WARN figures shown here are statewide context and are not occupation-specific openings.
Methodology & sourcesQCEW 2026 Q1 · coverage 100% · full evidence record
Methodology & Sources
Derived by JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix. This is occupation-weighted industry context, not direct occupation employment and not a count of current job openings.
- Occupation
- Cooks, restaurant
- SOC code
- 35-2014
- State
- Mississippi
- QCEW release label
- QCEW 2026 Q1
- Data period
- 2026 Q1
- State industry employment, year over year
- +0.3%State data coverage 100%
- U.S. benchmark, year over year
- +0.6%
- Difference from U.S. benchmark
- -0.4 percentage pointsPercentage-point gaps use the original published values and are rounded once; subtracting the rounded percentages can give a slightly different result.
- Establishments, year over year
- +5.0%State data coverage 100%
- Average weekly industry wage, year over year
- +1.9%State data coverage 100%
- Industry mix vintage
- EP-2025-2035
- BLS publication date
- Aug 28, 2026
- Source verification
- Verified against the committed source snapshotVerified Sep 17, 2026
- Canonical record URL
- https://jobmarkethealth.com/occupations/cooks-restaurant/mississippi#evidence-record
- Derived by
- JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix
MethodologyBLS QCEWHow to citeQCEW state context release, 2026 Q1
Weighted industry conditions are not direct occupation employment, occupation wages, current openings or a state-level Job Market Health score. No causal explanation is inferred.