Since oil prices have plunged and remained low, Alaskans are asking, is the state in a recession?
Chief of Research and Analysis Dan Robinson with Alaska’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development says it’s difficult to tell since there is a definition for a national recession, but not one for Alaska…
Robinson: “We talked about it a little bit internally and came upon with three consecutive quarters of over the year job loss, that’s a proposed definition. But to answer, are we in a recession, we don’t know. What we do know is through the third quarter of 2015, we continued to add jobs.”
He says that means if the state is in a recession, it began in or after that third quarter of 2015 or this first quarter of 2016.
Either way, Robinson’s research forecasts a job loss for Alaska of approximately 0.7 percent in 2016.
Robinson: “Low oil prices have created a oil related job loss, state government jobs are down 1,600 already, the state budget is very much a topic of interest. So there are some really big things happening that make it not very risky to say that a recession is likely in our future, and when it does happen, it will probably go on for more than three quarters but that’s the minimum for this definition.”