Alaska jobs up 2% in July, fueled mainly by North Slope oil work

Alaska wage and salary employment was up 2% in July, continuing a steady trend of job gains since the beginning of the year. The comparisons are year-over-year, against July 2023, according to state Department of Labor and Workforce data .

Within the total, private sector jobs were up 2.1% compared with July a year prior, while government employment was up 1.4%, according to the data. High-wage jobs showed strong gains, buoyed by North Slope oil and gas activity where two new oil projects, Willow and Pikka, are under construction.

Jobs in oil and gas are important to Matanuska-Susitna Borough residents because many who live in the region commute to petroleum-related jobs on the North Slope either with oil producing companies or contractors who support the industry.

Construction jobs were up 14.6%, reflecting mainly the North Slope project work, while oil and gas employment, or workers hired by oil companies as compared to contractors, was up 6.6%.

Transportation, warehousing and utility work was up 4.2% from July, 2023, mostly influenced by trucking. North Slope work has led to strong demand for trucking services to move equipment and supplied up the Dalton Highway. Professional and business services, which includes engineering and consultants, was up 3%.

There were also monthly gains, from June to July in all of these industries, although these increases were more seasonal in nature, building toward summer peaks in activity.

Some sectors showed only modest growth year-over-year. Retail was flat in July compared with the same month of 2023. Leisure and hospitality, which includes hotels, restaurants and bars and is reflective of the state’s tourist season, was up only 0.2%. This summer has seen a strong visitor season but last year, against which the July data is compared, was equally strong.

Health care continued its strong growth trend, up 4.2% in July year-over-year. Most of the increase was in hospital employment.

Manufacturing, however, mostly in seafood processing, was down 7.5% against July, 2023. This reflects the poor season for fisheries across the state. The seafood industry is plagued with a number of problems this year including poor markets created by Russia’s dumping of salmon, cod, pollock and crab on the market to gain revenue to pay for that nation’s war in Ukraine.

The depressed prices are across all fisheries in which Alaskans work, which is unusual.

Depressed prices for seafood also comes at a bad time with Alaska harvesters and fish processors facing higher costs as well as shortages of labor.

The strong U.S. dollar also makes Alaska seafood very expensive for nations which traditionally purchase it like Japan and countries in the European Union.

The monthly labor department data is from surveys of employers which are later adjusted when employers file actual hiring totals, which is required by law. Reports on the actual hiring comes after a lag, however, so the monthly surveys provide a kind of snapshot of employment trends which can be adjusted later.