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Tuscaloosa Area Ranks No. 4 Among Nation's Best Places For Career Opportunities

Tuscaloosa Area Ranks No. 4 Among Nation's Best Places For Career Opportunities

According to Smartasset Tuscaloosa, Alabama ranks number 4 for Best Places for Career Opportunities.

This in large part to West AlabamaWorks! contribution to access of career guidance through our many hiring and outreach events monthly.

This includes the many programs West AlabamaWorks! provide that are geared toward career opportunities such as: TransfrVR virtual reality career exploration throughout the school year with our West Alabama students, our annual Worlds of Work (WOW) event for our 9th graders, Virtual WOW which is our online gaming platform for career exploration that prepares 8th graders for WOW, Educator Workforce Academy (EWA) that bridge the gap between industry and education, our career connect system for adults seeking employment with training, education, and opportunities, as well as the newly launched student jobs portal: I.G.N.I.T.E.  for students ages 14-18.

According to Smartasset, professional guidance workers have access to roughly three career counselors for every 1,000 workers (ranking 24th-highest). Their research shows that the Tuscaloosa metro area may be especially attractive for job seekers who are looking to work in four industries. That is because these industries represent a larger portion of the metro area’s workforce than the national workforce.

These industries include:

  • Educational services (health care and social assistance)

  • Manufacturing

  • Retail trade

  • Construction 

More specifically, the educational services, health care and social assistance industry makes up 28.61% of the workforce in the Tuscaloosa area compared to 23.30% of the workforce nationwide.  

The manufacturing industry makes up 15.38% of the workforce in the Tuscaloosa area compared to 10.02% of the workforce nationwide.  

The retail trade industry makes up 11.18% of the workforce in the Tuscaloosa area compared to 11.03% of the workforce nationwide.  

The construction industry makes up 7.2% of the workforce in the Tuscaloosa area compared to 6.6% nationwide.

Here’s a breakdown of Tuscaloosa’s rankings in all nine metrics considered:

Annual Median Housing Costs(full-weighted metric)
$10,152 (27th-best out of the 200 metro areas analyzed)

May 2022 Unemployment Rate (full-weighted metric)
2.5% (38th-best out of the 200 metro areas analyzed)

One-Year Change In Total Employment (full-weighted metric)
4.1% from May 2021 to May 2022 (62nd-best out of the 200 metro areas analyzed)

Median Earnings (full-weighted metric)
$37,820 (66th-worst out of the 200 metro areas analyzed)

Job Diversity(full-weighted metric)
2.49 (54th-best out of the 200 metro areas analyzed)

Number of Career Counselors Per 1,000 Workers (half-weighted metric)
3.10 (24th-best out of the 200 metro areas analyzed)

Number of post-secondary teachers per 1,000 workers (half-weighted metric)
18.48 (50th-best out of the 200 metro areas analyzed)

Two-Year Earnings Change (half-weighted metric)
7.96% (86th-best out of the 200 metro areas analyzed)

Income Growth Over Career (half-weighted metric)
6.46% (36th-worst out of the 200 metro areas analyzed)

This is SmartAsset’s third study on the best places for career opportunities, view the full ranking here.