March job numbers show continued gradual economic recovery

Alaska continues to climb slowly out of the pandemic recession, job data released April 15 by the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Employment rose 2.3 percent in March over the same month of 2021, with 306,000 wage and salary workers employed last month compared with 299,200 working in March 2021.

This follows a 2.4 percent increase in February compared against February the year before.

Despite the growth, statewide job numbers in March are still below the same months of pre-pandemic 2019, when there were 317,900 Alaskans employed.

Among major industries construction appears to have recovered best, with 14,300 employed in the building industry in March, a gain of 100 against 14,200 working in the same month of pre-pandemic 2019.

All through the pandemic construction seemed less affected than other industries, and that was likely due multi-year federal construction particularly on military bases in Interior Alaska.

However, the story isn’t as good for oil and gas, another high wage industry. Petroleum work was hard hit by the pandemic recession, during which oil demand collapsed and oil prices with it. Rigs were laid off and hundreds of workers got pink slips.

What softened the blow of this on Alaska’s economy was that about 40 percent of North Slope oil workers are nonresidents, which reduced the economic hit.

The number of oil workers employed are still down from pre-pandemic 2019 but things are slowly improving. In March there were 7,200 petroleum workers employed, up 500 from March 2021. That was even with February, also with 7,200 oil workers employed.

But both months still lagged the same months of 2019, by 2,900 in March and 3,000 in February.

Looking at other industries, leisure and hospitality, a category that includes workers in restaurants and bars, showed a sharp 10.3 percent gain in March year over year, with 28,800 employed in March against 26,100 in the same month of 2021.The March total is still 2,800 below the pre-pandemic March 2019, however.

Restaurant and other hospitality workers took a big hit in 2020 and 2021 when businesses only partly open, but the industry is now seeing recovery. Leisure and hospitality is also seen as an economic indicator because it reflects the spending of disposable income.

Two other important industries, retail and trade, showed gains of 500 workers in March in both, with 34,000 working in retail in March and 6,600 in wholesale trade, up from 33,500 in retail in March 2021 and 6,100 in wholesale trade in that same month.

Both retail and wholesale trade compared relatively well against jobs in those industries in March 2019, however. Retail was down 400 compared with the same month of 2019 and whole trade was even with the 2019 job numbers.

Professional and business services, another important indicator industry, also showed graduaL recovery, with jobs up 100 in March 2021 and by 200 in February compared with the same two months of 2021.

But the totals are still down from the same months of 2019, or 900 jobs down in March and, 1,700 down in February.

This field includes engineers, consultants and environmental specialists that are good-paying jobs, and generally reflect trends in natural resource industries like petroleum and mining that are important to the state’s economy.

Government jobs in total were up 100 in March compared with March 2021. Federal jobs were down 100 and state jobs by 500, but these were offset by a gain of 700 workers in local government in March.

That is likely explained by a greater number of teachers back in the classroom compared with 2021.