Alabama businesses and workers produced a total economic value of more than $220 billion in 2018, which represents a huge rebound from the dark days of the Great Recession. In fact, since 2009, Alabama’s gross domestic product has risen by nearly one-third.
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More than 100,000 employer firms are operating today across the state of Alabama, and about 2.1 million people throughout the state are employed in a huge range of industries. Government jobs account for nearly 1 in 5 positions in Alabama, while manufacturing contributes another 13%, and trade, transportation and utilities account for about 18%.
SEE ALSO: Alabama Masters in Business Analytics
Three companies listed on the Fortune 1,000 call Alabama home, and the state was the site of nearly $10 million in startup investment during the third quarter of 2019 alone. With an economy that’s a healthy mix of traditional and cutting edge, Alabama may be an ideal location for professionals with experience in business analytics.
That’s because every single business, nonprofit, government agency or any other type of organization requires the expertise of people who know how to harness relevant data and use it to guide decision-making on a range of issues.
What kinds of salaries can business analytics professionals expect to bring home here in Alabama, how does the state compare to others, what does the future hold, and what are some examples of Alabama employers who’ve been looking to hire business analytics experts?
Business Analytics Salaries in Alabama
Before we can take a look at job-specific data for business analytics in Alabama, it’s helpful to understand some of the jobs that fall under the very broad umbrella of business analytics. As we mentioned, pretty much any job that involves using data to make organizational decisions could be called a business analytics job, and there’s a huge range of types of roles, from the highly technical to creative fields to executive positions.
SEE ALSO: Masters in Business Analytics Salary Outlook
What are some possible business analytics job titles? Here’s a look at a few that exist here in Alabama:
- Financial Analyst
- Market Research Analyst
- Data Scientist
- Management Consultant
- Budget Analyst
- Insights Analyst
- Business Intelligence Specialist
- Marketing Engagement Analyst
- Quantitative Modeler
- Research Executive
- Decision Engineer
- Operations Research Analyst
What do business analytics jobs pay in Alabama, and how do we compare to the rest of the country or our regional neighbors? We can’t list salaries for every possible business analytics job (there are just too many), so we analyzed five specific job titles that fall within the field and collected data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for each of them.
In three of the five jobs we looked at, the median annual wage for business analytics roles is higher in Alabama than in the U.S. as a whole. In the jobs where Alabama falls behind, though, wages still are considerably higher than the overall median wage in the state, about $38,000.
Median annual wage, Alabama vs. U.S.
| Job Title | Alabama | U.S. |
| Budget Analyst | $80,910 | $76,220 |
| Financial Analyst | $82,130 | $85,660 |
| Management Analyst | $84,400 | $83,610 |
| Market Research Analyst | $53,530 | $63,120 |
| Operations Research Analyst | $84,780 | $83,390 |
Alabama’s business analytics salaries do vary, but in addition to most being higher than the overall U.S. median, Alabama in some cases has among the best wages in the nation. For example, Alabama Business Analysts earn the seventh-highest wages in the country.
Median annual wage, Budget Analyst, highest and lowest
| Highest | |
| District of Columbia | $100,210 |
| Virginia | $89,710 |
| Maryland | $89,710 |
| California | $86,730 |
| Massachusetts | $83,240 |
| Connecticut | $81,850 |
| Alabama | $80,910 |
| New Jersey | $80,740 |
| Rhode Island | $80,320 |
| Colorado | $79,630 |
| Lowest | |
| Arkansas | $47,480 |
| Kentucky | $53,050 |
| Nebraska | $53,930 |
| South Dakota | $59,860 |
| Montana | $60,990 |
| Mississippi | $61,330 |
| Idaho | $62,740 |
| Louisiana | $63,270 |
| West Virginia | $63,730 |
| Missouri | $63,870 |
In addition to wages that tend to be higher than the average state, business analytics jobs are somewhat more common in Alabama than most of the remainder of the U.S. Budget Analyst jobs, for instance, have their 12th-highest concentration in Alabama.
Budget Analyst employment per 1,000 jobs, top 15
| District of Columbia | 2.604 |
| Alaska | 0.99 |
| Virginia | 0.972 |
| Maryland | 0.857 |
| New Mexico | 0.731 |
| Connecticut | 0.635 |
| New Jersey | 0.534 |
| Montana | 0.534 |
| Oklahoma | 0.509 |
| Kentucky | 0.491 |
| Massachusetts | 0.478 |
| Alabama | 0.475 |
| Hawaii | 0.463 |
| Wyoming | 0.428 |
| Mississippi | 0.426 |
In addition to relatively generous wages, business analytics workers in Alabama can expect to see more and more jobs popping up over the years. In all five cases, job demand is projected to grow over the next year and through the next several years after that.
Alabama job opening growth rate, short- and long-term
| Job Title | Short-term | Long-term |
| Budget Analyst | 2.4% | 7.3% |
| Financial Analyst | 2.6% | 7.8% |
| Management Analyst | 3.4% | 15.6% |
| Market Research Analyst | 5.1% | 21.6% |
| Operations Research Analyst | 6.8% | 30.6% |
Note: Short-term 2016-2020; long-term 2016-2026
Business analytics salaries vary widely across the state of Alabama, and metro areas tend to offer wages that are higher than the state’s overall median wage for all five jobs we studied.
Median annual wage, Alabama vs. select cities
| Job Title | Alabama | Birmingham | Huntsville | Montgomery |
| Budget Analyst | $68,390 | $73,990 | $92,950 | $55,660 |
| Financial Analyst | $74,200 | $80,090 | $87,200 | $80,970 |
| Management Analyst | $74,840 | $76,740 | $96,820 | $85,150 |
| Market Research Analyst | $57,910 | $58,380 | $57,730 | $48,270 |
| Operations Research Analyst | $72,840 | $74,520 | $92,590 | — |
Alabama Business Analytics Degree Programs
Business education is a big deal in Alabama, and the same is true for the business analytics specialty. Students in the state should expect to find several challenging, highly regarded programs where they can sharpen their business analytics tools.
Here’s a look at some of the colleges and universities in Alabama that offer degrees in the field:
Business Analytics Degree Jobs in Alabama
Because jobs tend to be available in every conceivable industry, the immediate outlook for business analytics jobs in Alabama is healthy, indeed. In fact, job openings should be available with businesses, nonprofits, government agencies and many other organizations.
SEE ALSO: Masters in Business Analytics Salary Outlook
Here are just a handful of the many examples of employers who were seeking to hire business analytics professionals in Alabama in late 2019:
- Shipt
- Dynetics
- Trident Technologies
- Lockheed Martin
- Randall-Reilly
- McLeod Software
- Boeing
- Radiance Technologies
- Qualis
- Honda
- Doozer Software
- Harris Computer
- Regions Bank
- FIS Global
- LG Electronics
- S. Air Force
- S. Department of Commerce
- IBM
Conclusion
For individuals with a head for numbers and strong business acumen, jobs in business analytics should provide the basis for a long and fruitful career. And the state of Alabama, with its ample educational opportunities and diverse economy, could be the ideal location to get started.
References
Note: Information on recent job openings was gathered from Indeed.com and Glassdoor.com in late 2019.
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Economy at a Glance, Alabama. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.al.htm
PWC/CB Insights, MoneyTree Report, Q3 2019. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.pwc.com/us/en/moneytree-report/assets/moneytree-report-q3-2019.pdf
U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics Query System, Custom Tables. (Undated). Accessed from https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/home
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Total Gross Domestic Product for Alabama. (2019). Retrieved from https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ALNGSP
U.S. Census Bureau, Quick Facts, Alabama. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/AL/PST045218