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According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the 2008 total gross state product was $170billion, or $29,411 per capita.

Alabama's 2012 GDP increased 1.2% from the previous year.

The single largest increase came in the area of information.

In 2010, per capita income for the state was $22,984.

The state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.8% in April 2015.

This compared to a nationwide seasonally adjusted rate of 5.4%.

Alabama has no minimum wage and in February 2016 passed legislation preventing municipalities from setting one. (

A Birmingham city ordinance would have raised theirs to $10.10.)

, Alabama has the sixth highest poverty rate among states in the U.S. In 2017, United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston toured parts of rural Alabama and observed environmental conditions he said were poorer than anywhere he had seen in the developed world.

Largest employers The five employers that employed the most employees in Alabama in April 2011 were: The next twenty largest employers, , included: Agriculture Alabama's agricultural outputs include poultry and eggs, cattle, fish, plant nursery items, peanuts, cotton, grains such as corn and sorghum, vegetables, milk, soybeans, and peaches.

Although known as "The Cotton State", Alabama ranks between eighth and tenth in national cotton production, according to various reports, with Texas, Georgia and Mississippi comprising the top three.

Aquaculture Aquaculture is a large part of the economy of Alabama.

Alabamians began to practice aquaculture in the early 1960s.

U.S. farm-raised catfish is the 8th most popular seafood product in America.

By 2008, approximately 4,000 people in Alabama were employed by the catfish industry and Alabama produced 132 million pounds of catfish.

In 2020, Alabama produced of the United States' farm-raised catfish.

The total 2020 sales of catfish raised in Alabama equaled $307 million but by 2020 the total employment of Alabamians fell to 2,442.

From the early 2000s to 2020, the Alabamian catfish industry has declined from 250 farms and 4 processors to 66 farms and 2 processors.

Reasons for this decline include increased feed prices, catfish alternatives, COVID-19's impact on restaurant sales, disease, and fish size.

Industry Alabama's industrial outputs include iron and steel products (including cast-iron and steel pipe); paper, lumber, and wood products; mining (mostly coal); plastic products; cars and trucks; and apparel.

In addition, Alabama produces aerospace and electronic products, mostly in the Huntsville area, the location of NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Army Materiel Command, headquartered at Redstone Arsenal.

A great deal of Alabama's economic growth since the 1990s has been due to the state's expanding automotive manufacturing industry.

Located in the state are Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama, as well as their various suppliers.

Since 1993, the automobile industry has generated more than 67,800 new jobs in the state.

Alabama currently ranks 4th in the nation for vehicle exports.

Automakers accounted for approximately a third of the industrial expansion in the state in 2012.

The eight models produced at the state's auto factories totaled combined sales of 74,335 vehicles for 2012.

The strongest model sales during this period were the Hyundai Elantra compact car, the Mercedes-Benz GL-Class sport utility vehicle and the Honda Ridgeline sport utility truck.

Steel producers Outokumpu, Nucor, SSAB, ThyssenKrupp, and U.S. Steel have facilities in Alabama and employ more than 10,000 people.

In May 2007, German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp selected Calvert in Mobile County for a 4.65billion combined stainless and carbon steel processing facility.

ThyssenKrupp's stainless steel division, Inoxum, including the stainless portion of the Calvert plant, was sold to Finnish stainless steel company Outokumpu in 2012.

The remaining portion of the ThyssenKrupp plant had final bids submitted by ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel for $1.6billion in March 2013.

Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional submitted a combined bid for the mill at Calvert, plus a majority stake in the ThyssenKrupp mill in Brazil, for $3.8billion.

In July 2013, the plant was sold to ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel.

The Hunt Refining Company, a subsidiary of Hunt Consolidated, Inc., is based in Tuscaloosa and operates a refinery there.

The company also operates terminals in Mobile, Melvin, and Moundville.

JVC America, Inc. operates an optical disc replication and packaging plant in Tuscaloosa.

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company operates a large plant in Gadsden which employs about 1,400 people.

It has been in operation since 1929.

Construction of an Airbus A320 family aircraft assembly plant in Mobile was formally announced by Airbus CEO Fabrice Brégier from the Mobile Convention Center on July 2, 2012.

The plans include a $600million factory at the Brookley Aeroplex for the assembly of the A319, A320 and A321 aircraft.

Construction began in 2013, with plans for it to become operable by 2015 and produce up to 50 aircraft per year by 2017.b The assembly plant is the company's first factory to be built within the United States.

It was announced on February 1, 2013, that Airbus had hired Alabama-based Hoar Construction to oversee construction of the facility.

The factory officially opened on September 14, 2015, covering one million square feet on 53 acres of flat grassland.

Tourism and entertainment According to Business Insider, Alabama ranked 14th in most popular states to visit in 2014.

An estimated 26 million tourists visited the state in 2017 and spent $14.3 billion, providing directly or indirectly 186,900 jobs in the state, which includes 362,000 International tourists spending $589 million.

The state is home to various attractions, natural features, parks and events that attract visitors from around the globe, notably the annual Hangout Music Festival, held on the public beaches of Gulf Shores; the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, one of the ten largest Shakespeare festivals in the world; the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, a collection of championship caliber golf courses distributed across the state; casinos such as Victoryland; amusement parks such as Alabama Splash Adventure; the Riverchase Galleria, one of the largest shopping centers in the southeast; Guntersville Lake, voted the best lake in Alabama by Southern Living Magazine readers; and the Alabama Museum of Natural History, the oldest museum in the state.

Mobile is known for having the oldest organized Mardi Gras celebration in the United States, beginning in 1703.

It was also host to the first formally organized Mardi Gras parade in the United States in 1830, a tradition that continues to this day.

Mardi Gras is an official state holiday in Mobile and Baldwin counties.

In 2018, Mobile's Mardi Gras parade was the state's top event, producing the most tourists with an attendance of 892,811.

The top attraction was the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville with an attendance of 849,981, followed by the Birmingham Zoo with 543,090.

Of the parks and natural destinations, Alabama's Gulf Coast topped the list with 6,700,000 visitors.

Alabama has historically been a popular region for film shoots due to its diverse landscapes and contrast of environments.

Movies filmed in Alabama include: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Get Out, 42, Selma, Big Fish, The Final Destination, Due Date, Need For Speed and many more.

Healthcare UAB Hospital, USA Health University Hospital, Huntsville Hospital, and Children's Hospital of Alabama are the only LevelI trauma centers in Alabama.

UAB is the largest state government employer in Alabama, with a workforce of about 18,000.

A 2017 study found that Alabama had the least competitive health insurance market in the country, with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama having a market share of 84% followed by UnitedHealth Group at 7%.

Banking Regions Financial Corporation is the largest bank headquartered in or operating in Alabama.

PNC Financial Services and Wells Fargo also have a major presence in Alabama.

Wells Fargo has a regional headquarters, an operations center campus, and a $400million data center in Birmingham.

Many smaller banks are also headquartered in the Birmingham area, including ServisFirst and New South Federal Savings Bank.

Birmingham also serves as the headquarters for several large investment management companies, including Harbert Management Corporation.

Electronics and communications Telecommunications provider AT&T, formerly BellSouth, has a major presence in Alabama with several large offices in Birmingham.

Many technology companies are headquartered in Huntsville, such as ADTRAN, a network access company; Intergraph, a computer graphics company; and Avocent, an IT infrastructure company.

Construction Brasfield & Gorrie, BE&K, Hoar Construction, and B.L. Harbert International, based in Alabama and subsidiaries of URS Corporation, are all routinely are included in the Engineering News-Record lists of top design, international construction, and engineering firms.

Law and government State government The foundational document for Alabama's government is the Alabama Constitution, which was ratified in 1901.

With over 850 amendments and almost 87,000 words, it is by some accounts the world's longest constitution and is roughly forty times the length of the United States Constitution.

There has been a significant movement to rewrite and modernize Alabama's constitution.

Critics argue that Alabama's constitution maintains highly centralized power with the state legislature, leaving practically no power in local hands.

Most counties do not have home rule.

Any policy changes proposed in different areas of the state must be approved by the entire Alabama legislature and, frequently, by state referendum.

One criticism of the current constitution claims that its complexity and length intentionally codify segregation and racism.

Alabama's government is divided into three coequal branches.

The legislative branch is the Alabama Legislature, a bicameral assembly composed of the Alabama House of Representatives, with 105 members, and the Alabama Senate, with 35 members.

The Legislature is responsible for writing, debating, passing, or defeating state legislation.

The Republican Party currently holds a majority in both houses of the Legislature.

The Legislature has the power to override a gubernatorial veto by a simple majority (most state Legislatures require a two-thirds majority to override a veto).

Until 1964, the state elected state senators on a geographic basis by county, with one per county.

It had not redistricted congressional districts since passage of its constitution in 1901; as a result, urbanized areas were grossly underrepresented.

It had not changed legislative districts to reflect the decennial censuses, either.

In Reynolds v. Sims (1964), the U.S. Supreme Court implemented the principle of "one man, one vote", ruling that congressional districts had to be reapportioned based on censuses (as the state already included in its constitution but had not implemented.)

Further, the court ruled that both houses of bicameral state legislatures had to be apportioned by population, as there was no constitutional basis for states to have geographically based systems.

At that time, Alabama and many other states had to change their legislative districting, as many across the country had systems that underrepresented urban areas and districts.

This had caused decades of underinvestment in such areas.

For instance, Birmingham and Jefferson County taxes had supplied one-third of the state budget, but Jefferson County received only 1/67th of state services in funding.

Through the legislative delegations, the Alabama legislature kept control of county governments.

The executive branch is responsible for the execution and oversight of laws.

It is headed by the governor of Alabama.

Other members of the executive branch include the cabinet, the lieutenant governor of Alabama, the Attorney General of Alabama, the Alabama Secretary of State, the Alabama State Treasurer, and the State Auditor of Alabama.

The current governor is Republican Kay Ivey.

The members of the Legislature take office immediately after the November elections.

Statewide officials, such as the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and other constitutional officers, take office the following January.

The judiciary is responsible for interpreting the Constitution of Alabama and applying the law in state criminal and civil cases.

The state's highest court is the Supreme Court of Alabama.

Alabama uses partisan elections to select judges.

Since the 1980s judicial campaigns have become increasingly politicized.

The current chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court is Republican Tom Parker.

All sitting justices on the Alabama Supreme Court are members of the Republican Party.

There are two intermediate appellate courts, the Court of Civil Appeals and the Court of Criminal Appeals, and four trial courts: the circuit court (trial court of general jurisdiction), and the district, probate, and municipal courts.