More jobs on way

April 5, 2005

DAWN De BUSK/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - The arrival of spring in the Valley is expected to thaw job prospects as well, for people in Mat-Su who are looking for work.

"We're a seasonal area," Barb West, manager of the Mat-Su Job Center in Wasilla, said earlier this week. "We have a lot of jobs becoming available now, but people usually don't go back to work until April or May. We had about 300 people a week searching for work."

The Valley's unemployment rate is higher from October through May, West said.

February's unemployment rate for the Mat-Su Borough was 9.1 percent, slightly higher than the statewide average unemployment rate of 8.4 percent, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Out of a labor force of 35,107 people in the Valley, 3,187 residents are unemployed, according to the figures, the most recent available from the labor department.

Last year's February unemployment rate was higher than this year's by almost 10 percent. In February 2004, the unemployment rate was 9.9 percent, with 3,433 Valley residents out of work.

The statistics were gleaned using a new model, which in January substituted the labor department's previous method of acquiring the information. The model was designed to get more accurate estimates.

The new method of calculating unemployment rates, a project joining the Alaska Department of Labor and the U.S. Borough of Labor Statistics, is the result of extensive research and testing, according to the March 2005 issue of "Alaska Economic Trends."

The magazine says the new way of gathering unemployment information will reduce the number of end-of-the-year revisions, taking into account outside influences on the job market like terrorist attacks or business cycles. The model was adopted primarily for its ability to get more accurate results than the previous method.

West said there has been a shift in the percentage of people hired in different job fields. In the past, construction created the most jobs in Mat-Su. It still does, she said, but other sectors are also providing Valley employment.

"We're becoming more of a service area, with Wal-Mart and Fred Meyer," she said, clarifying that service-oriented jobs include retail and fast-food positions. "And don't forget tourism, which is very seasonal. There are a lot of entrepreneurs who make stuff to sell to tourists."

In Mat-Su, West said job hunters can prepare themselves for the expected employment-market uptick by using the center's computers to review job listings or design résumés. Walk-in clients may also get one-on-one service from center employees, who will help them hone their job-hunting skills, including sharpening their interview techniques or creating a more appropriate résumé.

This month - in preparation for the Mat-Su Job Fair on April 21 - West said the center plans to double up on its résumé workshops, which are currently offered Monday mornings and afternoons.

The change will allow people attending the résumé workshop to actually do hands-on résumé writing using the conference-room computers, so they can walk out of the workshop with a finished résumé.

"Especially with the job fair coming up this month, we want people to be job ready," West said.

Those additional résumé workshops will be provided to the public as soon as the computers are hooked up, West said.

Unemployment statistics are listed at http://almis.labor.state.ak.us.

The Mat-Su Job Fair will be held from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., April 21, at Cottonwood Creek Mall. Approximately 50 employers will participate, West said.