MAT-SU — Despite the doom and gloom of the national headlines, the Valley economy saw real job growth in 2009, which meant more people came looking for work.

This was the report delivered Wednesday by Department of Labor economist Neil Fried to the Valley Board of Realtors.

“The (Mat-Su) Valley is one of the few places that has continued to grow, not just from a population standpoint, but from a jobs and opportunity standpoint as well,” Fried said.

ROBERT DeBERRY/Frontiersman file photo The Mat-Su Borough saw growth in retail, professional and business services, as well as leisure and hospitality jobs in 2009. The only sector that saw a decline was construction.

The number of jobs in the Mat-Su Borough increased by 3 percent over the first three quarters of 2009, Fried said. This means about 600 new jobs were added to the local economy from January to September.

Consistent with national trends, local job growth was positive in both government and health care sectors. But unlike the rest of the country, the borough also saw growth in retail, professional and business services as well as leisure and hospitality jobs. The only sector that saw a decline was construction, and transportation jobs remained neutral.

This 3 percent growth is in contrast to an estimated 1 percent decline in Anchorage’s jobs and a 0.7 percent decline statewide. Looking south, Oregon has lost 6.5 percent of its jobs since the recession began, and California now has 1 million fewer jobs as compared to the start of the recession.

“That is three times our entire labor force,” Fried said. “What if one tenth of 1 percent decided to come to Alaska?”

And according to population numbers, the borough continues to see an influx of migration.

The borough is now home to more than 84,000 men, women and children. This is up from 59,000 in 2000 and 39,000 in 1990. Growing faster than the rest of the state, the borough is now home to 12.2 percent of the Alaska’s population. This is up from 4.4 percent between 1970 to 1980, 7.2 percent between 1980 and 1990, and 9.5 percent between 1990 and 2000.

There are two mechanisms of population growth: natural increase and migration. Between 2000 and 2009, the 80 percent of the borough’s growth was due to migration. The net migration gain to the borough over this period was more than 18,000 people. Anchorage’s net gain during the same time was 1,203.

“These numbers really do matter,” Fried said, as they determine everything from seats in the state’s legislature to the amount of revenue sharing the borough gets.

But even outside of the state’s fastest growing area, Alaska as a whole is faring much better than the rest of the country. In 2008, the news was Alaska’s insulation from the recession, Fried said. It did hit in 2009, but not all the gains made earlier in the decade were lost, he said.

“We too have lost ground, but we are losing much less ground than the rest of the country,” he said.

Fried said Alaska’s relative success is because the economy is structured so differently than the U.S. economy as a whole. Manufacturing — a sector vulnerable to recession — is not nearly as important to Alaska. The Alaskan real estate market has not had the same disastrous effect here, he said. And then, of course, there is oil revenue and support from the federal government.

Fried said the numbers from 2009 have not been solidified yet, and predictions are always hit or miss. But, the Department of Labor is predicting a job loss of 0.4% for 2010 in the state.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.