Tourism employees got 44% more in total wages while seafood industry workers got 26% less in 2023 compared to the year before, according to an annual “Southeast Alaska by the Numbers” report presented Tuesday morning at the opening of this year’s Southeast Conference in Ketchikan.
The numbers, while unsurprising and a continuation of trends the past couple of years, show the opposite ends of a report that is largely optimistic in tone, but with numerous contrasts.
There was a 53% increase in housing units permitted/completed in 2023, for example. Yet the region’s population declined by 1% and the study notes “Southeast business leaders say that housing is the top obstacle to economic development in the region.”
”The main thing that’s going on actually has to do with demographics,” said Meilani Schijvens, owner of Rain Coast Data, which has conducted the annual studies since 2010, explaining the housing numbers to the conference. “We have seen a rise in single-occupancy homes from about a quarter of all households in Southeast Alaska to a third of all households in Southeast Alaska.”
Those demographics are causing workforce shortages even though the number of jobs in Southeast increased 3% overall in 2023, she said. However, that 3% growth also means “we are finally back to a higher job level, or equal job level to where we were before the pandemic.”
“It took us 43 months altogether, but we are finally back,” she said.
Other contrasts:
• A 9% increase in tribal government jobs in 2023 (and 51% rise during the past seven years) while state jobs dropped 1% (and are down 25% since 2012). “State government is the only sector that continues to cut jobs following peak pandemic losses,” the study notes, referring to all public and private sectors.
• A disparity in wages in some industries — notably tourism where employees accounted for 18% of jobs and 13% of wages in 2023, while mining provided 2% of jobs and 5% of wages.
• A 42% increase in cruise ship passengers and a 17% decrease in Alaska Marine Highway System passengers not living in Southeast Alaska in 2023.
• Employment remained fairly flat in towns such as Juneau and Sitka (rising 2% in each), while several smaller communities saw large jumps such as Skagway with 16% and Klukwan with 13%.
• There were 300 more jobs in Southeast in both the tourism and construction industries in July of 2024 compared to July of 2023, while there are 300 fewer seafood industry jobs. Besides record cruise ship traffic this year and last boosting the tourism industry, the construction industry thrived due to $334 million in federal infrastructure bill investments in Southeast in 2023.
• The seafood industry had its largest harvest in a decade in 2023, but “global drivers” meant the overall value of catch was down.
A survey of 440 business leaders in various industries found the business climate is the second-best in the report’s history — but lower than last year’s record high. A total of 30% of business leaders responding this year said they expect a better or much better outlook during the next year, and an additional 38% stated they expect their situation to remain the same in a positive sense.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at [email protected] or (907) 957-2306.
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