Alaska's job base grew 2.5% in 1998, with growth accelerating for the second consecutive year. Statewide, 6,700 jobs were added, the largest numerical increase since 1990.

Alaska's economy will continue to grow through 2000, although forecast employment growth rates in 1999 and 2000 will be among the slowest in Alaska during the last 10 years. A contracting oil and gas industry and the associated impacts in other sectors of the economy will put the brakes on the state's job growth.

Since the oil spill of 1989, the economies of Prince William Sound have undergone a variety of changes some dramatic and others more subtle. Only a few broad generalizations can be made about the economy of the Sound itself. That is because the region represents not a single economy but five distinct communities that usually operate independently of each other. March 1999 Trends

Women in Alaska earn less than men, on average. In 1997 Alaska females had wage and salary earnings only 65 percent as much as Alaska males, earning $19,070 versus average male earnings of $29,339. Females make up 47 percent of total workers.

Hugging Kotzebue Sound and belted by the Arctic Circle, the Northwest Arctic Borough is Alaska's second largest borough. Only the North Slope Borough is larger. Although the Northwest Arctic Borough was not formed until 1986 and its 11 communities are spread out over nearly 36,000 square miles, it is one of the most economically and culturally unified political subdivisions in the state.

In an era of sharp competition to recruit both valued customers and talented workers, the smart business is constantly looking for an advantage. Many businesses are finding that competitive advantage through the Alaska Employment Service (AES) in the Alaska Department of Labor's Employment Security Division.

A whiff of past construction booms is in the air. Many more road detours seem to plague communities around the state. New hotels, office buildings and other structures are going up without much attention, sometimes in the most unlikely places. New homes and subdivisions appear to be popping up everywhere. And more friends, family members and acquaintances are headed off to the North Slope to work on one of many construction projects.

For the seventh year in a row, Carr Gottstein Foods, a grocery chain, remains Alaska's single largest private sector employer. Carr's 1997 employment was down slightly from the previous year, however, with 3,192 workers.

The discovery of gold, World War II, the Korean War, construction of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline, the decision to invest oil royalties and the fall of oil prices all have contributed positively or negatively to the Alaska economy and influenced the development of the present population of the state.

At the turn of the century, gold discoveries precipitated a stampede of fortune seekers to the Bering Strait region along Alaska's northwest coast. Thousands of wouldbe miners landed at a shoreline location that was to become the community of Nome. In 1900, according to the U.S. Census, the city of Nome was the largest settlement in Alaska, with 12,488 people.