In the world of work today, the alliance between workers and employers is radically changing, and so is the business of linking job seekers to potential employers. Linking employers to workers and workers to jobs is the business of labor exchange. Labor exchange, beyond paying unemployment insurance benefits to the tens of thousands of Alaskan workers temporarily laid off each year, has been the role of the Alaska Department of Labor's (AKDOL) Employment Security Division for 60 years.

How expensive is it to live in Alaska? How much has Alaska's cost of living increased? These are two of the most frequently asked questions of the Alaska Department of Labor's Research and Analysis Section. In answerto thesequestions, this article provides some of the latest cost-of-living measurements available for Alaska and explains the uses and limitations of these data.

Alaska's economy will continue to grow slowly through 1998, extending a nine-year string of job gains into its second decade. The industries critical to job growth during this period are air cargo handling, services, hard rock mining, trade, and the visitor sector. On the down side, segments of Alaska's oil and gas industry, the manufacturing sector and to a lesser extent the public industries. In spite of the negative factors, positive influences on the economy will tip the balance toward job increases. However, the result is job growth that falls under the 1.0% mark in 1997 and rebounds to 1.0% in 1998.

Despite setbacks, Alaska's economy grew for the ninth straight year in 1996, propelled by an expanding services sector, another solid visitor season, selected retall trade growth and a budding hard rock mining industry. However, job growth was slower than at any other time during the 1990s. Fishing and timber industry woes combined with federal government downsizing, a slower construction season, and continued consolidation in Alaska's oil industry to further slow employment growth. Nevertheless, wage and salary jobs grew 0.6O10, slightly more than half of the 1 .OOlo pace set in 1995. No growth in Alaska's financial industry rounded out the factors leading to the slow employment growth.

Age plays a large role in determining employment and compensation outcomes in economies everywhere, and Alaska is no exception. Circumstances related to life- cycle transitions are important to people's choices of whether to work or not to work, whether to work full-time or part-time, or whether to work seasonally or year-round. Compensation in the form of wages and salaries is also strongly influenced by age, differences in education levels, work experi- ence, child-rearing responsibilities, retire- ment, and other life-cycle factors.

Although Alaska male workers, on average, continued to earn significantly more than female workers in 1995, the earnings gap between the two has narrowed significantly since 1990. Many factors can account for differences in average earnings between the genders, such as education, hours worked, or length on the job. But female workers earn less than male workers in virtually all age, industry and occupation categories, including typically female-dominated occupations.

Ketchikan is a narrow. waterfront community that stretches about three miles along the shoreline of Revillagigedo Island at the southern end of the Southeast Alaska Panhandle. Perched between the waters of the Tongass Narrows and steep, forested mountain slopes, it is Alaska's southernmost major city and the state's fifth largest, with a population of about 8,700. The surrounding Ketchikan Gateway Borough is home to nearly 15,000 Alaskans.

The announcement of an impending cutback or closure of a large employer invokes many fears i n t h e affected community and its residents. For employees, the imminent prospect oflost wages and benefits stirs up frightening questions about their future economic security. This apprehension in turn infects the community around them.

The description of Kodiak as the Emerald Isle not only hints at its scenic beauty but also alludes to the abundant ocean resources in its surrounding waters. While fishing provides Kodiak's economic base, other industries such as timber, tourism, and especially the Coast Guard's presence sustain and promote growth in the construction, retail and service industries.

Seafood processing is one of Alaska's earliest industries. Alaskan Natives processed fish and traded their surplus with other tribes. The first commercial fish canning operations opened in 1878, and by the turn of the century almost 50 canneries operated in the Alaska territory. At one time, about 75 percent of taxes from the Territory of Alaska came from canned salmon.