The economy is all over the place. Gas prices are up, then down, then up again. Inflation is running rampant, as the prices of nearly all goods and services are up across the nation. But Alabama’s two largest metro areas have managed to keep pace with inflation.
In fact, they’re beating the pace.
The Birmingham-Hoover and the Huntsville metropolitan areas have seen wages increase faster than inflation over the last few years. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, weekly wages in the Birmingham-Hoover and Huntsville metros have increased steadily since the start of 2019.
Huntsville, especially, has seen strong growth. Wages there – already the highest among Alabama’s major metro areas – have increased significantly over the last three years. As of May of this year, weekly median income before taxes in the Huntsville metro, which includes Madison and Limestone counties, reached $1,319. That’s a 5% increase since the start of 2022, and a strong 25% increase since January of 2019.
Birmingham saw similar, if slightly slower, growth. Wages in Alabama’s largest metro are significantly lower than those in Huntsville, with Birmingham-Hoover residents earning $1,083 per week before taxes as of this May. That’s a 23% increase since January of 2019.
But how do those numbers compare to inflation?
As of this May, BLS data shows the Consumer Price Index – a metric used to measure the change in price for goods and services in the U.S. – had increased by 17% since January of 2019 in the South. That means earnings in both the Birmingham and Huntsville areas outpaced inflation over the last few years.
Even recently, as inflation has run amok, wages in those metros have kept pace. Earnings have increased by 4% in Birmingham and 5% in Huntsville since the start of 2022. Meanwhile, the CPI for all goods has increased by 4% over that time.
While Birmingham and Huntsville have managed to beat the pace of inflation over the last few years, the Mobile metro, which includes Mobile and Washington counties, has just kept up.
Between January of 2019 and May of 2022, weekly wages in Mobile are up 19%, compared to 17% inflation during that time. Meanwhile, since the start of 2022, wages in the Mobile metro are completely flat, with 0% growth, compared to 4% inflation.
The Montgomery metro, the final major metro in the state, has seen the slowest long-term rise in wages, with just a 14% increase since 2019. That’s slower than the 17% inflation over the same period. And so far in 2022, Montgomery has seen just a 2% rise in wages, just half the 4% inflation the South has seen over the same period.
