Find a Job You Really Want In
Where home means football, southern charm, and, of course, a healthy job market.
But like all states and places, some are better than others when it comes to jobs.
So, here at Zippia, we took it upon ourselves to help people find what parts of Alabama are the best and the worst to get a job. We use our standard analytic process to separate the A places from everywhere else.
After crunching all the numbers, we were left with this set of the best places to get a job in Alabama:
- Spanish Fort
- Daphne
- Orange Beach
- Fairhope
- Vestavia Hills
- Robertsdale
- Hoover
- Gulf Shores
- Meadowbrook
- Alabaster
Follow along to see how we got to the best of the best.
How We Determined The Best Places For Jobs In The Heart of Dixie
We first researched detailed data on 579 places in Alabama. However, in order to properly compare places in an apples-to-apples manner, we set a minimum population threshold of 5,000 people.
This left us with 114 places in Alabama to analyze.
We then ranked each place across a number of criteria from one to 114, with one being the best.
We took the average rank across all criteria, with the place posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title “Best Place To Get A Job In Alabama”.
The criteria we looked at were:
- Unemployment rate
- Recent job growth
- Median household income
Sources of criteria include the the BLS and Sperling’s Best Places.
If your city or town isn’t among the top 10, jump down to the bottom of the post to see a detailed chart and a downloadable file of all the data.
Otherwise, learn how these cities moved up the career ladder.
1. Spanish Fort
Population: 6,936
Unemployment Rate: 5.20%
Median Household Income: $67,593
Spanish Fort solidifies itself as the best place in Alabama to get a job.
Strong marks across the board propelled this town to the executive perch, but it stood out for its recent job growth (tied for 2nd overall) and prospects for future job growth (tied for 1st overall).
And a fourteenth ranked median household income was just the edge Spanish Fort needed over Daphne.
2. Daphne
Population: 21,800
Unemployment Rate: 5.20%
Median Household Income: $63,890
Daphne has many of the same characteristics as Spanish Fort, but just lost out on median household income, so it finished second overall.
And as next door neighbors, and suburbs of Mobile, it makes sense that they’d appear next to each other.
3. Orange Beach
Population: 5,424
Unemployment Rate: 5.20%
Median Household Income: $59,679
Orange Beach takes the third spot on the best places in Alabama to get a job.
A little further south of the two places before it on the list, this beach town only trails in median household income, a recurring pattern for the places on this list.
4. Fairhope
Population: 15,599
Unemployment Rate: 5.20%
Median Household Income: $58,554
Fairhope places as the fourth best place to get a job in Alabama.
Another suburb of Mobile, it too shares the same characteristics of the surrounding suburbs, people just make a little less.
5. Vestavia Hills
Population: 33,831
Unemployment Rate: 3.70%
Median Household Income: $85,417
Vestavia Hills takes the fifth spot on the list for the best places to get a job in the Heart of Dixie.
Vestavia Hills finally gets a Birmingham suburb of the map, moving the focus away from Mobile.
The unemployment is unequal in the state and the median household income is fifth best in the state.
Unfortunately, it couldn’t compete with the mobile burbs when it comes to recent and future job growth.
6. Robertsdale
Population: 5,308
Unemployment Rate: 5.20%
Median Household Income: $49,167
The smallest place on the list, Robertsdale takes the sixth overall spot.
Anddd, we’re back to mobile where the only statistics separating these towns on the job front is the median pay for jobs.
7. Hoover
Population: 81,132
Unemployment Rate: 3.70%
Median Household Income: $76,061
The biggest place on the list, and another suburb of Birmingham, Hoover earned the seventh overall best place for jobs.
Sharing the same statistics with Vestavia Hills, it couldn’t quite compete on median household income.
8. Gulf Shores
Population: 9,671
Unemployment Rate: 5.20%
Median Household Income: $47,635
Ranking as the eighth overall best place in Alabama for jobs is Gulf Shores.
The neighbor to the west of Orange Beach, this small city had the lowest median household income of any place on the list.
9. Meadowbrook
Population: 8,628
Unemployment Rate: 4.20%
Median Household Income: $97,364
Meadowbrook keeps the ping pong game going as it represents another Birmingham suburb on the list of best places for jobs in Alabama.
South east of Vestavia Hills, Meadowbrook boasts the highest median household income of any place in our top ten, and second highest overall in Alabama.
10. Alabaster
Population: 30,372
Unemployment Rate: 4.10%
Median Household Income: $71,250
And rounding out the top ten is Alabaster.
For those of you following the pattern, you can tell Alabaster is a suburb of Birmingham because the median household income outranks the recent job growth.
For what it’s worth, I’d take the higher paying job any day of the week.
Wrapping up the best places for jobs in Alabama
Author
Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.
