Manufacturing growth in North Alabama has become a positive economic driver for our region. According to SmartAsset’s Best Places to Work in Manufacturing 2021, both Huntsville and Decatur have ranked high among the United State’s metropolitan areas which are favorable for manufacturing environments.
Huntsville, ranked number six, when analyzed and compared to over 400 metro areas for metrics such as:
- manufacturing as a percentage of the workforce
- job growth from 2018 to 2019
- income growth from 2016 to 2019
- housing costs as a percentage of income
- and the September 2021 unemployment rate
Huntsville, often known as a technology center, has seen a 20.97% high income growth between 2016 and 2019 despite the fact that manufacturing employment only makes up 11.1% of the metro’s workforce, the growth speaks to the depth of resources and technology available within the region for growing manufacturers.
Huntsville also had the 30th-lowest unemployment rate in September 2020 of 2.3%. Region 1 has consistently maintained the lowest unemployment rate in the state of Alabama.
Decatur, another strong North Alabama city, ranked fifteenth on the SmartAsset list with 25.6% of its workforce in manufacturing and a 10.2% growth in the metro’s one-year income growth. Like Huntsville, neighboring Decatur holds the low unemployment rate of 2.3% measured in September of 2021
