The state Department of Labor and Workforce Development found Alaska’s average monthly employment grew by 0.4 percent in 2015’s third quarter compared to the same period in 2014.
State officials are still mulling whether or not Alaska is in a recession. The Department’s Chief of Research and Analysis Dan Robinson says it’s difficult to tell since there is only a definition for national recession but not specifically 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.”
There was an average of 354,204 jobs in July through September of 2015, which was 1,551 more than third quarter of 2014.
Private employers added over 1,900 jobs in that same time period, while the public sector shrunk by about 400.
State government jobs were cut by 850 jobs between the third quarters of 2014-2015, while federal government jobs gained 262 positions for the first time since 2010.
There was strong growth for Alaska in retail, leisure, and hospitality jobs, along with continued growth in health care.
Seven hundred jobs were added to the retail sector and a record number of summer tourists helped add more than 1,100 positions in restaurants, bars, hotels, and recreation.
Private health care, which does not include municipal hospitals, added 762 jobs.