Meeting Alaska's Seasonal Employment Needs

For many years, one of the most important tasks of the Alaska Department of Labor has been tracking levels of employment, labor force, and earnings. Every year, Alaska's economy experiences huge seasonal swings in these measures, the degrees of which are unrivaled by any other state. In 1996, for example, employment in the state's peak month exceeded that in the lowest month by nearly 35,000 jobs, or more than 14 percent. Seasonality in the Alaska economy exists for obvious reasons, and although the state's maturing economy has helped moderate the seasonal swings, nothing will stop them from recurring each year.