Dental Assistants

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State of Alaska > Department of Labor > Research & Analysis Home > Alaska Occupations

Dental Assistants (31-9091)

Occupation description: Assist dentist, set up equipment, prepare patient for treatment, and keep records.

For an explanation of the data, click on the question mark next to the heading.

Career Ladder/Lattice

The Alaska Career Ladder/Lattice is a tool to help job seekers identify upward career paths and lateral opportunities.
Click here to see the career ladder/lattice for Dental Assistants.

Employment and Job Openings

	Average employment			Average annual openings
	2010 estimate	2020 projection	Percent change	Growth	Replacement	Total
Alaska	1,006	1,342	33.4	34	24	57
United States	297,200	388,900	30.8	9,160	6,240	15,400

Job outlook

Alaska: Alaska’s employment growth is robust with very high employment opportunities. Read more.

2012 Wages

	Mean Wage and 95% Confidence Interval			Wage by Percentile
	Low	Mean	High	10th	Median	90th
United States	n/a	16.86	n/a	11.32	16.59	22.87
Alaska	18.65	20.18	21.71	13.45	20.31	27.30
Anchorage/Mat-Su Area (MSA)	19.43	21.45	23.47	14.65	21.93	27.59
Fairbanks North Star Borough (MSA)	14.16	17.06	19.96	11.48	16.12	25.59
Southeast Region	19.35	20.67	21.99	15.57	20.10	27.36
Balance of State	15.87	18.54	21.21	11.84	17.41	26.72

Labor Force Indicators

2011 Worker Characteristics
Total workers	Nonresident workers	Percent nonresident	Percent age 45 plus	Percent age 50 plus
1,199	127	10.6	24.1	15.8

2011 Potential Supply

Qualified but working in another occupation	140
Currently employed in a lower paid occupation	34
UI claimants previously working in occupation	143

2011 ALEXsys Employment Data

Number of registrants	662
Number of job position postings	133
Ratio of registrants to job position postings	5.0

Typical Entry-level Education, Experience, and/or On-the-job Training

Education: Postsecondary non-degree award

Work experience: None

On-the-job training: None

Training Resources

	Degree	FY2008–2010 reported exiters
Assist to Succeed Anchorage
Dental Assistant		0

	Degree	FY2008–2010 reported exiters
University of Alaska Anchorage
Dental Assisting, AAS		0
Dental Assisting, CT2		0

	Degree	FY2008–2010 reported exiters
University of Alaska Fairbanks, CTC
Dental Assistant, AAS		0
Dental Assistant, AAS		0
Dental Assistant, CT2		0
Dental Assistant, CT2		0

Department of Labor and Workforce Development
Research & Analysis Section

1111 W. 8th St., Juneau, AK 99801
P.O. Box 115501, Juneau, AK 99811-5501

Phone: 907.465.4500 Fax: 907.465.4506