Mobile is the third most populous city in the state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County.  It is located on the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 198,915 as of the 2000 census.  Mobile is the principal municipality of the Mobile Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 399,843 residents which is composed solely of Mobile County and is the second largest MSA in the state.  Mobile is included in the Mobile-Daphne-Fairhope Combined Statistical Area with a total population of 540,258, the second largest CSA in the state.

Aerospace, retail, services, construction, medicine, and manufacturing are Mobile's major industries. After experiencing economic decline for several decades, Mobile's economy began to rebound in the late 1980s. Between 1993 and 2003 13,983 new jobs were created as 87 new companies were founded and 399 existing companies were expanded. 1,700 new jobs were created from February 2003 to February 2004. According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, Mobile's unemployment rate is 4.1% as of February 2008.

Mobile's Alabama State Docks is currently undergoing the largest expansion in its history by expanding its container processing and storage facility and increasing container storage at the docks by over 1,000%.  As of 2006, the Port of Mobile was the 10th largest by tonnage in the United States. 

In 2005 Austal USA, based in Mobile, expanded their production facility for US defense and commercial aluminium shipbuilding.  In 2007 German steel manufacturer ThyssenKrupp announced plans for a $3.7 billion steel mill. The new plant is currently under construction in northern Mobile County. Company officials state that 2,700 permanent jobs will be added to the local economy.

On 29 February 2008, the United States Air Force announced that a partnership between Northrop Grumman and EADS had won the contract to produce the new KC-45 aerial refueling tanker. The contract is considered to be worth up to $40 billion with 179 planes to be delivered over the next ten to fifteen years. The production of these aircraft will be at Mobile's Brookley Complex.