Alabama Strong Employer Environment

May 28th, 2007 Posted by Mark

With all this talk about the federal minimum wage and debate about what it could do to local economies to have to pay that three part increase to the federal minimum wage over the next two years, employers in Alabama might be able to rest assured that their economy at the moment seems strong enough to withstand whatever is thrown at it, at least if you believe the Southern Business and Development magazine.

This magazine every year comes out with a Top 10 ranking of some of the best locations in the South to be an employer. It grades each community it looks at based on the leadership that the local community has, on some of the modes of transportation and resources that go into that transportation system, and on what kind of and how strong the emerging industries are in the area.

For the year 2007, Alabama came up strong in many of those judging categories. For instance, on the Southern Business and Development magazine’s Top 10 leaders in the South for the year 2007, the governor of Alabama, Gov. Bob Riley, made the list he scored big for being able to develop an important economic development agency that seems to have turned the state’s fortunes around.

The Southern Business and Development magazine also rated Birmingham as a top 10 place in the South to raise a family. Some of the reason for this include, according to the Southern Business and Development magazine, the fact that cost of living in Birmingham is reasonable for employees and business owners alike, and that the community is home to some of the South’s most dynamic industry employers in sectors such as publishing, finance, life sciences, and retail.

When it comes to the industries and employers of aerospace and aviation, in the South there are few better places to be then Mobile and Huntsville, according to the Southern Business and Development magazine, which put both of these Alabama communities in its top 10 lists for these industries. The reason is because Huntsville’s aviation employers get money from the military industrial complex via its Brookley Industrial Complex and its relationship with weapons contractor Northrup Grumman, as well as EADS North America, which has its tanker production facility in the area.

When it comes to some of top universities in the area producing tomorrow’s best employees and employers, Birmingham gets another mention from the Southern Business and Development magazine pages. This time, it’s the University of Alabama in Birmingham that made the list because of the excellent research bring done at the university there. The college is also a top health care incubation location, because of its strong relationships with the National Institutes of Health, as well as the employees that it produces for the biotech industry in the South and beyond.

When it comes to other emerging and exciting industries, put Huntsville back in the Southern Business and Development magazine’s spotlight. The community is known as well for its involvement in the tech sector, again with its Cummings Research Park. Believe it or not, Huntsville has the second highest proportion of scientists and engineers within its borders in the entire United States. Huntsville not only has the research park, it also has a special institute dedicated to the tech sector—the so called Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology and Digium (don’t ask me what digium is).

Anyways, what does this have to do with the rest of you employers in the state? Well, if you are part of one of the communities or sectors that the Southern Business and Development magazine mentioned, kudos to you. If not, you can feel rest assured that your economy, powered by your fellow employers, is starting to make waves in the region and in the nation, and that’s good for everyone involved.

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