2019 was a solid year in economic development for the Birmingham region. There were 32 projects with 1,180 jobs and $492.2 million in capital investment announced this year, and, halfway through 2019, the region reached and then surpassed its pre-recession height of employment.

The City of Birmingham launched a new transportation pilot program earlier this month that aims to both complement and extend public transportation for certain areas of the city.

Birmingham On-Demand debuted on December 3 as a six-month pilot program, using public mobility company Via to develop and operate an on-demand shared ride service that services a zone encompassing the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC), Legion Field, the Birmingham CrossPlex and more.

A new year – and a new decade – is upon us, and Forbes is predicting that 2020 will start out well for the Birmingham job market.

The Birmingham Business Alliance and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have partnered to offer Birmingham companies, researchers and community leaders programming strategically focused on the intersection of investment banking and the health care industry.

Jessica Payne, vice president of middle market banking and specialized industries at JPMorgan Chase Commercial Banking, became the 2020 Birmingham Regional Enterprise Council (BREC) chairwoman at the final BREC luncheon of the year. BREC is a council of Birmingham Business Alliance investors who are committed to helping small businesses in the greater Birmingham region succeed.

The BBA sat down with Payne to learn more about her and her goals for BREC in 2020.

When Mike VanSickle graduated from Birmingham-Southern College in 2015, he wanted to stay in the region and work. But four years ago, Birmingham didn't have the type of job he wanted.

Originally from New Jersey, VanSickle opted to stay in the Southeast and landed in Atlanta, working for accounting software company LeaseQuery at its headquarters there. When the fast-growing tech company decided to open a second domestic office in Birmingham this year – after a search that included other contenders like Salt Lake City, Charlotte and Nashville – VanSickle jumped at the opportunity to return to the city.

Filling out the Census next spring only takes five minutes, but its impact will be felt for the next 10 years both locally in Birmingham and statewide.

That's according to Kenneth Boswell, director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), who addressed the Birmingham Business Alliance's Governmental Affairs Committee recently. Boswell discussed the work of his office and the Alabama Counts! grassroots and strategic campaigns ADECA is implementing to educate Alabamians about the upcoming 2020 Census.

Birmingham-based Southern Sky Aviation has added 65 jobs since its formation nearly three years ago, the company told the Birmingham Business Alliance recently.

The company, in operation since 2017, offers charter flights and aircraft maintenance, avionics, management and brokerage, combining to make it a full-service aviation company.

The Newcomen Society of Alabama honored Great Southern Wood Preserving Inc., based in Abbeville, Ala., and its founder and CEO Jimmy Rane last week in Birmingham at the Society’s annual awards ceremony. Founded in 1937, the Newcomen Society of Alabama was a chapter of the prestigious Newcomen Society of the United States, which celebrates free enterprise and is modeled after the Newcomen Society of England.

This summer, Michael O’Neal found himself out of work and looking for a job. Little did he know that, by summer’s end, he would find not just a job but a career through a new apprenticeship program from Central Six AlabamaWorks.

Inside a 5,000-square-foot facility on Fourth Avenue South, 15 employees of Deft Dynamics are hard at work perfecting the company’s fifth startup in as many years.

Birmingham’s Deft is one of a handful of venture studios popping up around the country that use in-house talent, equipment and resources to help various startups get off the ground. Deft and other venture studios are in the business of creating new technology across various platforms by assembling a versatile team that can bring its skillset to a number of different ideas under the same roof.

Alabama’s workforce programs have undergone several changes in the past couple years and to say that this has caused some confusion would be a huge understatement! I liken it to the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act, which created the beginnings of the Interstate system that focused on building a system of connected roads that would funnel traffic from smaller roads into safer, more efficient “Super Highways.”

When we look at workforce development in Alabama over the last 50 years, we’ve been a mishmash of programs or smaller roads all leading to the same goal but having to travel those roads on a wildly divergent path. In a few words I’d like to clear up the confusion and untie the knot related to the programs housed within the Alabama Department of Commerce.

Kerry Schrader and Ashlee Ammons – the dynamic mother-daughter duo behind Birmingham startup Mixtroz – were both veterans in their respective careers when they started their company in 2014.

Schrader was a senior level human resources executive and Ammons was working as an event producer for celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jay-Z. They took a gamble on themselves and their idea, which hatched after they had attended one too many awkward networking events to build an app that connects people at live events.

Birmingham regional employment reached 549,000 in July 2019, up 2.1 percent year-over-year – the highest year-over-year job growth the Birmingham region has experienced since April 2012, when numbers jumped 2.2 percent and reached 508,100. This recent surge in jobs ranks Birmingham eighth among its peer metros.