BBA Data Debrief – 2025 Recap

Written by: Tatianna Turrentine-Long 

This month’s Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA) Data Debrief marks our seventh and final report of 2025, providing a look back at the most meaningful trends shaping our region’s business climate this year. Across labor market shifts, cost-of-living competitiveness, and business confidence, the data tells a clear story about Birmingham’s momentum. These insights help business leaders and community stakeholders understand the state of our workforce, affordability, and economic outlook. Providing strategic, actionable business intelligence is our priority, and we look forward to building on that work in 2026. 

Key Takeaways from the 2025 BBA Data Debrief Series:

Labor Market:  

The Greater Birmingham Region has experienced many changes and fluctuations in its workforce between March and August 2025. Some industries, including Transportation and Warehousing, Manufacturing, and Food Services, saw significant month-to-month and year-over-year growth, while sectors such as Financial Activities and Wholesale Trade experienced slight declines. 

The unemployment and labor force participation rates remained stable and barely changed for the state and for the region. Unemployment ranged between 3.4% and 3.8% with the labor force participation rate ranging between 58.0% and 58.4%, mirroring national trends.  

Cost of Living:  

In August, the Council for Community Economic Research released the Q2 Cost of Living Index (COLI) report, announcing the updated price index for all participating metro areas in the United States. The COLI measures the cost of living as a quality-of-life indicator across six categories: groceries, healthcare, transportation, housing, utilities, and miscellaneous goods and services.  

In this quarterly report, Birmingham remained one of the most competitive regions in cost of living in the southeast and in comparison, peer metros across United States metro areas like Austin, New Orleans, Nashville, Charlotte, and Raleigh reported significantly higher cost of living indexes, indicating that the salaries of residents in these areas do not stretch as far as it would in Birmingham.  

Other areas in the United States reported astronomically higher COLI, like New York and San Jose, which shows the Birmingham region as more advantageous for talent and companies looking to relocate for more affordable cost of living.    

For example, Birmingham’s index currently stands at 90.4, while cities like Los Angeles scored 151.2, highlighting how far salaries go here compared to higher-cost metros. This affordability makes Birmingham an attractive option for talent and businesses considering relocation. 

Alabama Business Confidence:  

In October, the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse School of Business released the projected outlook for Alabama Business Confidence for Q4 2025. The Alabama Business Confidence Index measures the overall confidence of businesses in Alabama in projected economic indicators across multiple factors including the Alabama Economy, US Economy, Industry Sales, Industry Profits, Industry Hiring, and Industry Capital Expenditures.  

Overall, businesses were moderately confident in the projection of these indicators for Q4 2025, with this outlook being reflected by businesses in the Birmingham region and the other top metros in the state.  

Businesses across all industries increased confidence in projected growth for Q4, with Transportation and Utilities recording the highest confidence index (65.6) and the highest increase in quarter-to-quarter change (21.1).  

As we wrap up 2025, we are grateful for the opportunity to share these insights, highlighting national, regional and industry-focused data with the business community and helping to inform the region on our growth and progress in economic mobility and prosperity.  

In 2026, we are excited to continue this series, sharing vital economic indicators to help businesses and community partners enact data-driven decisions.  

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!  

Want to catch up on all 2025 BBA Data Debriefs? Check them out below:  

BBA Data Debrief – March 2025  

BBA Data Debrief – April 2025  

BBA Data Debrief – May 2025  

BBA Data Debrief – June 2025  

BBA Data Debrief – August 2025 (Represents the Q2 Cost of Living Index Report)  

BBA Data Debrief – October 2025 (Represents the Alabama Business Confidence Index report and the economic outlook for Q4 2025)