Wages for Alaska workers are up, but total jobs remain lower than pre-pandemic levels

The average hourly wage in Alaska was $33.60 in 2023, putting the state in 11th place among all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The median hourly wage — which is calculated in a way that reduces the influence of the highest and lowest numbers — was $26.99.

Those figures are among the statistics detailed in a pair of articles by state analysts and published in the December issue of Alaska Economic Trends, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s monthly magazine.

One article, by research analyst Samantha Jenkins, showed the wide range in hourly wages earned by workers in the state’s top 10 occupations in 2023. Among those occupations, general and operations managers earned the most, at $58.09 an hour on average, followed by registered nurses, who had average hourly wages of $52.51. At the bottom among those 10 occupations were fast food and counter workers, whose average pay was $14.91 per hour, and cashiers, whose average pay was $17.04 per hour, the article said.

The national average hourly pay in 2023 was $31.48, Jenkins’ article said.

Statewide and across economic sectors, Alaskans’ average pay rose by 5.2% in 2023, outpacing the 1.5% inflation rate, said a separate article by Karinne Wiebold, a department economist.

That was a reversal of the situation in 2021 and 2022, when inflation rates of 4.9% and 8.1% were higher than average wage growth in the state, said Wiebold’s article.

The areas with the highest rise in average wages from 2022 to 2023 were Skagway, with a 20% jump in average pay, and Wrangell, where the increase was 18%. Those were among a region-wide growth in wages and were tied to a single industry, Wiebold’s article said. “Southeast communities’ wages rose the most in 2023 — specifically Skagway, Wrangell, Haines, and Hoonah-Angoon — during a banner tourism year,” the article said.

Alaska had a record cruise ship season in 2023, with 1.65 million passengers visiting the state, mostly in the Southeast region.

In contrast, the average wage in the Bristol Bay Borough in 2023 was 8% lower than in 2022, even though the total number of jobs in that region and the total amount of money earned by workers increased. The Bristol Bay region is heavily dependent on commercial salmon fishing, and low prices last year depressed the value of the harvest to fishers to a level 37% below the 20-year average, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The total number of jobs in the state in 2023 was 3% higher in 2023 than in 2022, Wiebold’s analysis showed.

But the total number of jobs in the state in 2023 was 1,135 lower than pre-pandemic levels, her analysis showed.

In only four of 13 measured categories had job totals returned to levels above those in 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The health care sector had the biggest gains, with 1,640 jobs added from 2019 to 2023. In contrast, the oil and gas industry had 2,353 fewer jobs in 2023 than it did prior to the pandemic, Wiebold’s article said. That was the case despite the addition of nearly 500 jobs and a 12% increase in total wages in 2023, the article said.

The oil and gas industry is the highest-paying industry in Alaska, with an average annual pay of $181,143, Wiebold’s article said.

Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.