Jefferson County, Alabama

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 8.4% below the national average, so the nominal median of $66,388 is worth $72,476 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 15.7%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 49,983 workers (19.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $77,400. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 65,740 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $65.5B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $129,360 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $28,257, a 4.6x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Primary Metal Manufacturing concentrates at 5.93x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 9 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 36.9% of the employment across them, the largest being freight and distribution. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.
• Attraction whitespace: 6 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.6x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Vacancy level: 13.2% of housing units are vacant, below the Alabama rate of 14.5%, and down from 15.2% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 67.4% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 3.5%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 23.3% of the vacant stock, or 3.1% of all housing units against the 13.2% headline vacancy rate. That is the figure to plan an incoming employer's housing against, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 1 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $41,092 can pay without cost burden (~$1,027/mo), and 49.3% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 61.5% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: the 6 largest of 12 institutions in Jefferson County award 10,859 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Jefferson County shows strong potential for primary metal manufacturing attraction, with a 5.93x concentration and 4,896 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans primary metal manufacturing, utilities, and beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 36.9% of the employment across them, the largest being freight and distribution. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.