A laska's Northern Region covers more than 146 thousand square miles or approximately a quarter of all the land area of Alaska. This huge piece of real estate contains only 24,000 individuals, or less than four percent of the state's population. Its inventory of natural resources includes the nation's largest oil fields, a resource that has generated more wealth for the state than any other single source. It was the site of the state's largest gold rush, and currently is home to the world's largest zinc mine. Geographically, it includes the North Slope and Northwest Arctic Boroughs and the Nome Census Area with a total of 35 communities. Only three of these communities have more than a thousand residents.

Resources, historical events, and human desire have combined to shape the population of Alaska. Historic demographic trends do create a reality that guides future events. However, there is no crystal ball that allows us to foretell the future. While the recent past is our best guide to the future, things never turn out quite as predicted. The large 'baby boom' population that has dominated demographics for the last 30 years is a force that will continue to influence Alaska's future.

In many ways the term 'Alaska fisheries' is both vague and misleading. It is vague in the sense that these fisheries include both small-scale ventures such as clam digging and the industrial levels of investment and organization required of modern factory trawlers. The former are often sources of supplemental income, while the latter involve the financial complexities of corporate owned fleets of high volume catcher-processors.

What will the occupational mix of Alaska's economy look like a decade from now? In which occupations will increases be necessary to meet the demands of an evolving job market over this period? These are important questions for the future of our state, with ramifications for educators, training providers, and policy makers on the one hand, and on the other, for the Alaska workers who will ultimately fill these positions.

Few economies, if any in this state, have bragging rights equal to those of the Kenai Peninsula Borough. Most communities struggle to diversify their economies, but the Kenai Peninsula accomplished this long ago. Fishing, the visitor industry, oil and gas, refining, government, and its attractiveness as a haven for retirees, are the fundamental economic drivers of the Kenai Peninsula economy.

Nearly 19,000 wage and salary employees work in Alaska's private sector transportation and warehousing industry. This is more than construction, oil, information, and a number of other industries. Fourteen of the state's top 100 private sector employers are involved in transportation. The industry generates more than $3.3 billion in annual revenues. Public sector transportation is also important and includes the high profile Alaska Marine Highway and Alaska Railroad. Impressive as these facts may be, the real value of transportation lies in its contributions to the rest of the economy. Transportation weaves the web that ties Alaska's economy together and binds it to the world.

For the third year in a row in 2003 and probably for many more to come, Providence Health System Alaska graced the top of the list of Alaska's largest employers. Just a decade ago Providence had fewer than 2,000 employees. Its workforce of 3,556 is approximately 120 more than it was in 2002. Safeway/Carrs was the runner-up for the third year in a row with 3,135 employees. These two are the only employers that have broken the 3,000 barrier and it probably will be years before any others reach this number.

The number of jobs in Alaska is expected to grow to 335,500 by 2012, an increase of more than 43,000. The forecast can be characterized by continued growth in the near term, with accelerated expansion near the end of the forecast period. The quickening growth pace during the coming ten years is in part the result of one of the major assumptions in this forecast that construction of an Alaska gas pipeline will start in 2012.

Of all the factors that influence the growth or decline of a population, migration is the most important and the most difficult to study and understand. Migration involves movement of a person between two geopolitical locations over a period of time. Different types of migration data yield different insights into how people move in response to economic and other conditions.

Alaska has produced job growth for sixteen consecutive years, and is expected to add two more years to the streak in 2004 and 2005. (See Exhibits 1 and 2.) Growth rates of roughly two percent from 2000 to 2002 slowed to 1.5 percent in 2003 and are expected to remain near that level for the next two years.