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National Construction Employment Numbers May Not Reflect Alaska

AGC

National unemployment numbers for the construction industry may not reflect those of Alaska.  KDLG’s Chase Cavanaugh has more.

The Associated General Contractors of America recently released a report showing employment numbers for the construction industry.  It said Alaska had 16,800 construction jobs in May, and the number dropped to 15,500 jobs in June, a loss of 7.7% and the most of all 50 states and the District.  While this number may seem stark, state economist Caroline Schultz says they don’t necessarily reflect what actually happened in Alaska.  According to her, the numbers are “seasonally adjusted” to reduce variance from industries that are employed for only part of the year.  She says if they weren’t adjusted, the numbers would reflect job gains and losses in the oil and gas industry, and show a gain of 1400 jobs from May to June. 

“I just don’t necessarily think that those over the month losses are reflective of what’s actually happening in the construction industry, and probably a better way of comparing is to look at what June’s employment was this year compared to June’s employment last year or even the year before. It’s to get a historical context of how many construction jobs we have now in terms of what we’re having usually this time of year.”

According to a later report by AGCA, Alaska’s construction jobs fell from 18,800 to 17,800 from June 2013 to 2014, a 5% loss.  When adding numbers for the mining and logging industries, jobs rose from 36,800 to 36,900.  Both reports can be found at the website of the Associated General Contractors of America.