One popular news year’s resolution is getting a new job. And, a new study shows Huntsville is the best place in Alabama to look for work. The financial website Wallethub analyzed factors like job security, underemployment, and worker satisfaction nationwide. Huntsville ranked number twenty one in the country for best city to gain employment. Wallethub analyst Jill Gonzales says Huntsville’s jobless rate is half compared to other Alabama cities.
“Looking at unemployment rates, they are all about doubling what Huntsville is doing,” Gonzales observed. “They’re hovering at around five percent, which again is low considering the past couple of years we’ve had. But, obvious Huntsville is even lower, which means there’s more job opportunities.”
Gonzales also says the higher number of federal jobs in the Huntsville area with the Redstone Arsenel, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the contractors that support them, and the new FBI regional campus provided added stability to the employment picture.
“There has been some employment growth around two percent year over year, over the last couple of years has been hard to do,” said Gonzales. And it has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country at two point five percent.”
In addition to the job market related factors to which Gonzales alluded, the Wallethub study also included socioeconomic issues. Among those were median income, housing affordability, and the average commute time. While Huntsville ranked at number 21 nationally, Mobile came in at 102, Birmingham was 107. Montgomery ranked the lowest in Alabama at 159th.
