Many ‘ring counties’ had quick economic comebacks after COVID

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - While every area faced some level of hardship during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which metro Birmingham county had the fastest economic recovery?

According to a Birmingham Business Journal analysis of federal date, the fastest recovery was in Blount County, with St. Clair County coming in second and Shelby County fifth.

BBJ looked at gross domestic product data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis for the period from 2020 to 2021.

Ty West, senior editor of National Content for American City Business Journal, says having strong industry in a country was among the factors that helped it to recover.

“Frankly, when you look at what’s happened since COVID, those ring counties have been very big beneficiaries of, in a lot of fronts.. They saw a lot of economic activity during COVID,” said West. “A lot of people moved from a city center, or kind of that central county in their metro area, to one of what they would call like ring counties. A lot of home builders were calling it the donut effect.”

While Blount and St. Clair Counties had the fastest recovery, Jefferson County had the largest.

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