Mobile County, Alabama

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $5,119 (8.0%) under the Alabama median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 11.9% below the national average, so the nominal median of $58,880 is worth $66,833 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 16.2%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 9.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 24,916 workers (18.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $63,930. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 27,131 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $30.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $91,823 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $23,461, a 3.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Primary Metal Manufacturing concentrates at 5.25x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 13 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 49.1% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. 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 3.2x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Vacancy level: 13.1% of housing units are vacant, below the Alabama rate of 14.5%, and down from 14.9% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 63.1% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 11.7%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 16.8% of the vacant stock, or 2.2% of all housing units against the 13.1% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, 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 $36,158 can pay without cost burden (~$904/mo), and 48.9% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 58.5% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 2.9% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: the 6 largest of 8 institutions in Mobile County award 5,345 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Mobile County shows strong potential for primary metal manufacturing attraction, with a 5.25x concentration and 2,112 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans primary metal manufacturing, transportation equipment manufacturing, and chemical manufacturing, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 49.1% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.