Jefferson County, AL has 1.2× fewer moving companies with employees per resident than the national average.
Jefferson County, AL has 14 household and office moving companies with employees — 0.2 per 10,000 residents, against a national rate of 0.3. That's 1.2× fewer than average (US Census, County Business Patterns 2023).
- In Jefferson County
- 14
- Per 10k residents
- 0.2
- National rate
- 0.3
- Ratio
- 1.2× fewer than average
Population 664,084. Ranked 3 of 8 Alabama counties with enough moving services data to compare — 1 = fewest per resident.
Source: US Census County Business Patterns ↗Jefferson County, AL has 5 fewer household and office moving companies with employees than in 2017 — 19 then, 14 now, down 26%. Nationally the count grew 15% over the same years.
Jefferson County moved against the national direction over these years. That is the part worth asking about locally — the data says it happened, not why.
What this doesn't tell you: Census counts how many exist each year, not how many opened or closed. A drop of 5 could be 5 closures — or 13 closures and 8 openings. It also can't see solo operators without employees, in any year.
Series runs 2017–2023. Earlier vintages exist but are not comparable: Census changed which small counties it publishes after 2016, so including them would show counties losing an industry that never left.
Census code 484210 covers used-household-and-office-goods moving: local movers and long-distance van lines carrying furniture and belongings.
The blind spot: The code counts companies that own trucks and carry goods. Moving labor — supplying the people who load a truck the customer already rented — is a different business, and this number does not isolate it.
What this doesn't tell you: A low count can mean an opening — or that there's less local demand for it. This measures how many businesses exist, not how many customers want one, and it can't see solo operators without employees. Treat it as a lead to check, not a verdict.
County Business Patterns counts establishments with paid employees. A solo operator with no payroll — the most likely competitor for most of these businesses — is invisible to it, in every county, including this one.
Fewer of these per resident than the country average is a reason to look, not a reason to start. The two explanations the data cannot separate are “nobody has served this yet” and “there is less to serve here” — a county with few pool services may simply have few pools. The next step is not a business plan, it is ten phone calls to people in Jefferson County who would pay for it.
Census counts these as one industry, so the 14 above includes all of them together. It cannot tell you how many are any single one.
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