Southcentral Alaska jobs in commercial salmon harvests hit records in 2014, while most of Alaska saw significant growth in commercial groundfish jobs last year.
Alaska’s overall commercial fishing employment grew by 0.7 percent in 2014, primarily driven by increased harvests in walleye pollock and Pacifi cod.
Groundfish harvesting employment has seen job growth every year since 2009 and in 2014 grew by 24.8 percent, or about 350 jobs.
Southcentral Alaska on the other hand saw a decline in groundfish harvests, instead reaching 2.4 percent job growth, or almost 30 additional jobs, in the salmon harvest job industry.
Because all fisheries in southcentral registered job losses, the region’s harvesting employment levels were down overall.
