Aloe Bay Master Plan Appendix
industries is so small that a change in just one business can greatly impact on the Island’s entire sector. Mobile County overall added more than 14,000 jobs (8.6%) between 2002 and 2018, for a total of approximately 177,400. The county lost employment in agriculture and extraction industries, utilities, information services, and real estate, administrative services, and a few other sectors; but gained jobs in manufacturing, transportation & warehousing, professional and scientific services, management, health care, and accommodation services. The largest gains have been in health care (8,500 jobs), accommodation & foodservice (3,800), transportation (1,300), manufacturing (1,200), and professional & scientific services (1,100). A summary of the county’s employment trends is found in the Appendix of this report.
Dauphin Island comprises less than one percent of Mobile County’s total employment, averaging 0.3%, with the exception of government (1.8%), recreation (1.7%, down from 2.5% in 2002), and real estate (1.2%). Dauphin Island comprises of just 0.6% of the county’s total accommodation and foodservice employment and 0.2% of its retail trade. COVID Pandemic Impacts The Pandemic has clearly had a negative impact on the Dauphin Island and Mobile County economy. Much like the rest of the world, Mobile County saw unemployment skyrocket as businesses were shuttered to avoid transmission of the virus and under orders from State and local agencies. Mobile County’s unemployment rate increased from 3.5% in March 2020 to 14.2% just one month
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