After five years of growth, Southeast Alaska’s labor force and population leveled off in 2013, according to data released Tuesday at a regional economic development conference.
Meilani Schijvens of Rain Coast Data prepared the report and presented it at the Southeast Conference annual meeting in Wrangell. She said lack of significant growth in the region’s economy from 2012 to 2013 mirrors state trends.
“If you compare it to the statewide economy, they also had very small growth in terms of employment and very small growth in terms of population,” Schijvens said. “So our growth was slightly smaller but it was quite similar.”
The report noted regional employment increases in the maritime sector and visitor industry. There were decreases in government employment at all levels, mining and health care.
Schijvens said as the economy improves in the rest of the country, young people are less likely to seek jobs in Southeast Alaska.
“Because of the aging of our region, we really need those younger people moving to Southeast Alaska in order to increase our population. So I guess my concern is that if we’re not able to kind of turn around that trend and find some way to attract the under-30 crowd to Southeast Alaska, that we’re actually going to start to see population declines for the first time since 2007,” Schijvens said.
Southeast Alaska’s population was at a record high of 74,382 in 2013, but it only increased by 19 people from the previous year.
