Forecast: Big Projects to Boost Job Growth
- Details
- Category: State News
- Created on Friday, 05 January 2024 15:49
- Hits: 159
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
Alaska is expected to gain 5,400 jobs in 2024, an increase of 1.7% over the past year and enough to nudge total state employment above 2019 levels for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, according to the newly published annual forecast from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Information about job opportunities is seen Thursday on a bulletin board at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Alaska is expected to gain another 5,400 jobs in 2024, thanks in large part to big projects that will generate new oil and gas and construction employment, according to the annual forecast issued by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
The job outlook was published in the January issue of the department’s monthly research magazine, Alaska Economic Trends.
The “major catalyst” for job growth, the forecast said, will be big projects: federally funded infrastructure projects and mining and oil and gas development. That is a change from the past couple of years, in which job growth was largely attributed to recovery from the pandemic.
Sectors with the most growth are mining and logging, which are grouped together and include oil production, as well as construction. The mining and logging sector is expected to gain 1,000 jobs, an 8.7% increase over 2023. Within that sector are an expected 600 new oil and gas jobs, according to the forecast. Construction jobs are expected to increase by 1,100, 6.6% above 2023 totals, according to the forecast.
Sectors remaining flat include manufacturing, federal government employment and financial services, according to the forecast.
In all, 1,600 more jobs are expected in Alaska in 2024 than the total in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic. That amounts to a 0.5% increase in 2024 over the pre-pandemic total.
Changes since 2019 vary widely across economic sectors, the department reported.
Oil and gas jobs, despite the growth expected this year, are forecasted to total 1,900 fewer in 2024 than in 2019, a 19.2%, the forecast said. But the health care sector, with an expected 1,800 more jobs in 2014 than in 2019, has had significant growth, the forecast said.
There are also regional differences that are detailed in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Southeast job forecasts that accompany the larger statewide forecast issued by the department.
In Anchorage, expected job growth of 1.6% in 2024 will not be quite enough to bring employment back to 2019 levels, according to that forecast. There are mixed outlooks for different sectors. Economic activity generated by air-cargo traffic is a bright spot, with the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport now ranking as the world’s third-busiest for cargo volume, and some trouble spots, like a continued long-term stagnation in financial and information services, according to the forecast.
In Fairbanks, the pandemic-created job losses were not as steep as for the state as a whole; the large role that the military and the University of Alaska play in the regional economy insulated the area somewhat from pandemic effects on employment. The job recovery in Fairbanks is likewise expected to be less dramatic, with 1.4% growth, according to the region-specific forecast.
In Southeast Alaska, tourism-related employment will continue to grow following a record year for cruise passengers to Alaska, and government employment is expected to remain steady. However, the region is expected to suffer some losses in seafood-processing jobs, according to the regional forecast.
Statewide, labor shortages are expected to temper job growth, according to the forecast. The dual effects of aging and outmigration mean there are fewer people available to take jobs and, in some cases, less demand for products and services, the forecast said.
Anchorage has lost residents since its population peaked at 302,167 in 2013 and now has about 19,000 fewer working-age adults than it did a decade ago, the forecast noted.
The situation appears particularly stark in Anchorage, according to the department’s forecast for the city.
Anchorage has lost residents since its population peaked at 302,167 in 2013 and now has about 19,000 fewer working-age adults than it did a decade ago, the forecast noted. Those losses show up in school enrollment numbers, housing construction and other metrics, making the city’s long-term future “unclear,” the forecast said.
“One of the key questions is quality of life: Do people want to live there, raise families, invest in housing and the community, and make it their home?” the forecast said. “While a strong tourism year, increased oil field activity, and federal infrastructure and military projects will heat things up a bit in 2024, it will likely take more than that to turn around a long-lingering stagnation.”
––––––––
https:/alaskabeacon.com/yereth-rosen
State DOT Looking Into Tunnel Under Knik Arm
- Details
- Category: State News
- Created on Thursday, 04 January 2024 16:00
- Hits: 176
By NATHANIEL HERZ
Northern Journal
State transportation leaders say they’re taking another look at the idea of using a tunnel instead of a bridge to connect the city of Anchorage with undeveloped land across the Knik Arm, in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
Alaska politicians have advanced the idea of the Knik Arm bridge in the past as a way for Anchorage area residents and workers to access more developable land in the Mat-Su.
But some Anchorage residents — particularly in the Government Hill neighborhood, where one end of the bridge would sit — have criticized its steep price tag and its displacement of neighborhood homes and businesses. A 2019 study estimated construction costs for the bridge to be some $900 million.
The controversial plan has been largely dormant in recent years, after independent former Gov. Bill Walker stopped work on it amid a state budget shortfall in 2016. Three years later, Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy removed restrictions on advancing the bridge, but his administration has made little tangible progress.
A previous analysis in 2003 examined the idea of a tunnel instead of a bridge. Now, given “significant increases in tunneling technology,” the state transportation department is taking another look at the concept, Commissioner Ryan Anderson said in an email.
“We continue with our due diligence efforts on evaluating the merits of strengthened Mat-Su Anchorage connections,” Anderson said. “These are exploratory discussions; there are no actions being taken at this time.”
The department is also examining the use of tunnels for upgrades of the Seward Highway between Anchorage and Girdwood, Anderson said.
In both cases, the agency is looking at whether tunnels could reduce costs and permitting requirements. For the highway project, tunnels could also cut off curves and require less work to realign a parallel railroad bed, Anderson said.
–––––––––––
Nathaniel Herz welcomes tips at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or (907) 793-0312. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Herz.
DOT Delays Work on Landslide-Hit Highway
- Details
- Category: State News
- Created on Wednesday, 03 January 2024 15:56
- Hits: 192
By Larry Persily
Wrangell Sentinel writer
Although the Alaska Department of Transportation had hoped and planned to pave the rebuilt section of Wrangell’s Zimovia Highway in the landslide area by early this month, the weather did not cooperate and the concrete work has been postponed to at least March.
“It isn’t working out in our favor,” Chris Goins, DOT regional director for Southeast, said of the gusty winds that blew through town before and after Christmas, forcing the rescheduling.
Until it warms up and winter storms are past, drivers will see a crushed-rock surface for several hundred feet as they travel across the damaged section at 11-Mile Zimovia Highway.
Though the department planned to use a cold-cure concrete that can set up so long as temperatures stay above freezing, it was the wind that created the bigger problem, Goins explained on Dec. 26. The large insulating blankets, measuring about 6 feet by 25 feet, that crews would have used to cover the concrete while it cured would have blown away in the winds.
It also would have been costly to keep concrete workers on standby in town, waiting for a consistent stretch of good weather to pour and smooth the surface of the new pavement, he said. It would have taken more than a week in total, allowing time for one lane to cure before moving to the other lane.
“The decision to use gravel is due to forecasted high winds and heavy rain, followed by cooler temperatures unsuitable for the proper curing of concrete,” the department posted on Dec. 23.
The state has additional rock on hand in Wrangell to fill in any potholes that develop in the temporary surface until it is paved, Goins said.
The highway was reopened to two-way traffic 24 hours a day through the patched area on Dec. 23, Goins said. New, larger culverts are in place to move runoff water under the highway, and the shoulders and drainage have been repaired after the deadly Nov. 20 landslide damaged the highway and took out about 200 feet of asphalt.
The department has concrete and all the material in town that it will need for the paving, Goins said. As soon as the weather cooperates, which he guessed at March, the contractor will go to work paving the road surface with six inches of concrete.
More Articles...
Thanks to the generosity and expertise of the the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska broadband department, Tidal Network ; Christopher Cropley, director of Tidal Network; and Luke Johnson, Tidal Network technician, SitkaSentinel.com is again being updated. Tidal Network has been working tirelessly to install Starlink satellite equipment for city and other critical institutions, including the Sentinel, following the sudden breakage of GCI's fiberoptic cable on August 29, which left most of Sitka without internet or phone connections. CCTHITA's public-spirited response to the emergency is inspiring.
Login Form
20 YEARS AGO
September 2004
Photo caption: A replica of the sign reading “Annahootz Head Chief of the Sitka Tribe” in this 1904 photo of the Kaagwaantaan Wolf House is among items to be rededicated Oct. 23-24 at the 100-year anniversary celebration of the Last Potlatch of 1904. The sign was part of the Wolf House artifact collection loaned to Sitka National Historical Park in 1963.
50 YEARS AGO
September 1974
A seminar course, Topics of Aquaculture will be offered by Sheldon Jackson College. ... Dennis Lund, an SJC aquaculture program instructor, will coordinate the seminar..
Calendar
