Building Birmingham’s Workforce, One Initiative at a Time

Birmingham is in the middle of something exciting. Across the city, residents are finding new pathways into careers, employers are connecting with stronger talent, and communities are gaining access to the tools and support that make economic mobility possible. That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when the right strategy meets the right moment.

At Markstein, workforce development is a space we’ve worked in deeply with measurable results to show for it.

From Concept to Impact: Good Jobs Birmingham

When the City of Birmingham launched Good Jobs Birmingham, the goal was clear: connect residents with limited access to jobs and resources to high-quality healthcare careers through training, wraparound support, and mentorship. The challenge wasn’t just awareness. It was about trust, access, and relevance.

Markstein built a data-driven strategy centered on understanding how job seekers actually make decisions. We developed detailed audience personas, mapped candidate pathways, and created an interactive career quiz that matched each visitor to the partner organization best suited to their goals. Targeted media amplified reach across the region, with focused outreach to those historically excluded from healthcare career pipelines.

The results tell two different stories, and both matter. The reach numbers — 10 million impressions, 35,000 website users, 4,300 leads connected to training programs — show the strategy worked. And the outcome numbers show it meant something:

• 901 credentials earned
• 823 training programs completed
• 254 job placements secured

Those aren’t campaign metrics. Those are people who came back to the workforce and found a way through.

Shaping What’s Next: Reinvest Birmingham

Birmingham’s momentum continues. Earlier this year, the City launched Reinvest Birmingham, a federally funded initiative connecting residents in the North Birmingham, Northside, Pratt, and Smithfield communities to training programs, career pathways, and support services. Markstein is one of the marketing and recruitment partners behind it.

From updating the brand identity to building the messaging framework, microsite, and a virtual career mapping tool that guides residents through employment pathways aligned with their goals, we’re building the infrastructure that makes a complex initiative feel accessible and trustworthy to the people it’s designed to serve.

Workforce Marketing That Works

What makes workforce marketing different is the stakes. You’re not selling a product, you’re asking people to invest in themselves, often after systems have failed them before. Rather than participation rates, the real story is about why people left, what brought them back, and what support actually mattered. That requires strategy built on research, community context, and a genuine understanding of what moves people to act.

That’s what Markstein brings to this work. And it’s why public agencies and community-focused organizations, including the City of Birmingham, keep choosing us to power their most important initiatives.

Ready to build something that moves people? Explore our workforce solutions.