January 4, 2018 — After a steep drop in 2016, seafood harvesting employment rebounded in 2017, growing 8.3 percent and hitting a record of 8,509 average monthly jobs in the state of Alaska.
The employment growth was widespread, covering most species and regions, which was a departure from previous years when certain fisheries’ or regions’ growth tended to offset losses elsewhere.
The 8.3 percent growth for seafood harvesting in 2017 was the largest in percent terms among Alaska industries. Health care, which has been marked by strong job growth for decades and has been one of the few industries to grow throughout the state recession, grew by just 2.3 percent.
Summer and fall brought impressive growth in harvesting jobs after a weak start to the year. Most of the year’s growth came during the summer. July has always been the seafood harvesting peak, and in 2017 it went up by another 634 jobs, bringing the July total to 24,459.
The biggest jumps came on the edges of the summer, however. June, September, and October each gained more than 1,000 jobs from 2016’s levels. June’s employment grew the most, up 1,877 jobs from June 2016.
The year’s few losses came in the early months. January, February and March levels were all down from the year before. Those months are more important for crab fisheries than other species, which is why crab harvesting was one of the few fisheries that lost jobs in 2017.