Census report analyzes businesses in the Shoals

Here are three things the average resident probably doesn't know about the Shoals: it has nearly double the number of gas stations per capita than the national average, almost half of its businesses employ four or fewer people, and salaries in Colbert County are 27 percent more than wages in Lauderdale County.

These were some of the notable trends culled from an analysis of the 2006 U.S. Census report, County Business Patterns, released Thursday.

The annual Census report catalogues businesses throughout 3,100 counties across the U.S., but excludes the self-employed, employees of private households, agricultural workers and most government employees.

Shoals employers totaled $1.2 billion in payroll with the average worker earning $25,588 annually. Workers in Colbert County annually earned $29,334 on average, 27 percent more than workers in Lauderdale County ($23,098). The data do not indicate where county workers live, but the county where the jobs are.

Pete Williams, labor economist at the University of North Alabama, speculated that the difference between the counties may stem from Colbert County's strong history of large manufacturing plants and its unionization, a hypothesis he said would take more data to test.

"Because of the metals plant and the union jobs associated with that, that would tend to pull up that average," said Williams.

Manufacturing jobs paid $42,251 on average in Colbert County, 40 percent more than the average $30,098 salary in Lauderdale County.

Though unions have dwindled in the region, "We still have about 1,000 people at Wise (Alloys) and those union jobs pull down pretty good earnings," he said.

Throughout the Shoals, small businesses with four or fewer employees accounted for nearly half (49 percent) of the 3,309 businesses counted by the Census. Businesses employed 47,499 workers in the two-county region, with an estimated 2006 population of 142,657.

"You can do a lot with four people," said Giles McDaniel, executive director of Shoals Entrepreneurial Center, who said he wasn't surprised by the census data.

Across the board, technology, software and manufacturing automation reduced the number of people needed in an industry, McDaniel said.

"Technology has helped level the playing field for smaller businesses; that's why you can employ a company with four people."

But without the payroll data specifically for small businesses, Williams said it is difficult to determine their economic impact.

"There is a long tradition of heralding the small business owner as the engine of real growth in the U.S.," Williams said.

"It's not so obvious to me that small businesses account for the majority of economic activity," he said, but said the data indicated that there's a lot of opportunity in the region.

Colbert County had 18,965 employees who worked at 1,283 businesses, about half of which (617) employed one to four people.

Manufacturing (3,916 workers), retail trade (3,625 workers) and health care (2,646) dominated the profile of employees in Colbert County.

Lauderdale County had 28,534 employees who worked at 2,026 businesses, about half of which (995) also employed four or less people.

Retail (5,180 workers), health care and social assistance (4,581 workers), manufacturing (4,002 workers) and accommodation and food service (3,589 workers) dominated the work force profile of Lauderdale County.

On average, management positions earned the most ($52,662 per worker in Colbert County); payroll data was unavailable for Lauderdale County).

Information businesses, which include publishers and mainly telecommunications, earned the next top salary, an average of $50,014 in Colbert County. In Lauderdale County, workers in the same classification earned $29,662 annually on average, according to the census data.

For both counties, the lowest payroll came from accommodation and food services, many times part-time work. In Lauderdale County, the average worker earned $10,634, but earned $8,930 in Colbert County.

Overall, payrolls in 2006 increased at levels above the national rate of inflation, the census data revealed.

Colbert County workers on average earned 6.02 percent more in 2006 than in 2005 and in Lauderdale County that payroll increase was 3.86 percent.

In Alabama, the average wage increased 2 percent from 2005 to 2006. In 2006, the national rate of inflation was 3.24 percent, according to data collected by InflationData.com.

Then there's that gas station statistic.

The Shoals has one gas station per 1,385 people compared to the national average of one gas station per 2,605 people, according to the Census report. One hundred three gas stations employed 557 people in 2006, according to the data.

Gas station employees earn more in Colbert County with the annual payroll per gas station employee at $15,931 compared with $12,837 per employee for Lauderdale County, according to an analysis of the census data, both slightly lower than the national average of $16,449.

Nationally, gas stations employ more than 910,000 people, with a total annual payroll of $15 billion.

"We are in a rural area and people are somewhat spread out - you're going to see convenience with respect to gas stations," Williams said.

Trevor Stokes can be reached at 740-5728 or trevor.stokes@TimesDaily.com.