The Year 2004 in Review

The streak goes on. For the seventeenth consecutive year Alaska added jobs to its economy in 2004. The year's average monthly job count of 304,000 was an increase of 4,700 over 2003 and marked the first time the state climbed above the 300,000 mark. A historical look shows Alaska surpassed 200,000 jobs in 1982 and 100,000 in 1972. Only three other states, all in the sun belt, can claim to have at least tripled their job count since 1972: Nevada, Arizona, and Florida.