Oil industry employment hits records

Employment in the Alaska oil industry looks set to hit a record level again this year, Neal Fried, an economist with the Alaska Department of Labor, told the Resource Development Council’s annual conference on Nov. 19. Apart from 2010, each year since 2007 has marked a new record for employment levels in the industry. The employment level in the North Slope industrial complex is particularly impressive, with an increase of about 1,200 in personnel compared with last year, Fried said.

“There were more people in Prudhoe Bay this year than there ever have been in the history of our state,” Fried said.

However, the employment growth rate in Alaska as a whole had slowed, a phenomenon that is cause for “some concern,” he said. And, as the United States recovers from an economic recession, the unemployment rate in Alaska has started to edge above that for the United States as a whole for the first time since 2007. That unemployment rate situation is not unusual, with Alaska having the most seasonal employment pattern in the country, Fried said.

And, overall, the state is well-off. Even allowing for the high cost of living, the standard of living is pretty high when compared with other states, Fried said.

- Alan Bailey