Alaska receives almost 10 times more unemployment filings since shutdown began

Alaska receives almost 10 times more unemployment filings since shutdown began

Numbers jumped from 40 in a month to 382 in past three weeks

There have been almost 10 times more unemployment filings from federal workers in Alaska than normal since the federal shutdown began.

The Alaska Department of Labor & Workforce Development received 382 benefit claims from federal workers in Alaska over the last three weeks, Division Director Patsy Westcott said. In contrast, there were only about 40 claims for federal workers in Alaska for the whole month of November.

“That’s pretty significant,” she said.

The maximum unemployment payout benefit in Alaska is $370 per week, and Wescott said most federal employees would qualify for that amount. She did not have data of how many of the 382 new filings were from Juneau.

Juneau Economic Development Council has been working on collecting estimates for local data. Executive Director Brian Holst said the JEDC estimates there are about 670 federal workers in Juneau, accounting for 4.1 percent of the total workforce in town. The Coast Guard active duty employees are all working, along with all of the Transportation Security Administration employees at the airport and the U.S. Postal Service workers.

“Most of our gaps are the Forest Service workers,” Holst said. Of about 165 Forest Service workers, only about 20 to 30 are working, he said.

Some are being paid through fees collected at Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, but that won’t last forever, Holst said. The Postal Service is also able to pay employees through stamp revenues, he said.

“If this happens another two weeks, it will really start to impact the local economy,” Holst said. “I think it’s a bit muted right now.”

He attributed some of the “muted” impacts to the fact that Congress passed a bill last week confirming retroactive pay for furloughed federal workers. This makes those economic impacts harder to gauge because workers might still be spending normally, just buying things on credit cards because they’ve been assured that the lost wages will come back to them, he said.

JEDC estimates that $2.3 million in Juneau workers’ wages were not paid out in last week’s pay period.

“It would be an exaggeration to say that number equals the spending lost,” Holst said. But as time progresses, people will slow down their spending to a closer amount equal to lost wages. He also said there’s a multiplier effect on places like grocery stores and restaurants, such as the ones reported by the Empire last week.

[‘It’s ridiculous’: Furloughed Juneau residents frustrated at federal shutdown]

Workers who filed for unemployment right when the shutdown began have already started receiving weekly payouts, Westcott said. To apply, she said furloughed workers need some kind of wage proof, such as pay stubs, to help speed up the process.

“Federal agencies don’t automatically report worker wages to the state,” she said. “We have to request those. But with the shutdown there’s no one there to send us those reports.”

But Alaska’s unemployment “trust fund is healthy,” Westcott said.

[Some Coast Guard employees furloughed, others working without pay during shutdown]

“We definitely have the funds to pay benefits to these workers, so there’s no concern there,” Westcott said.

If workers are paid retroactively once a federal budget passes, workers who received unemployment benefits will be required to pay back any benefits they received during the shutdown from that retroactive pay.

Ideally, Westcott said, workers would pay that money back as soon as they receive retroactive pay.

“Once we establish an over-payment, if the benefits aren’t paid back timely, then we will pursue a levy like a Permanent Fund Dividend payout,” she said. “So it’s in workers’ best interest to pay it back when they get their retroactive pay.”


• Contact reporter Mollie Barnes at mbarnes@juneauempire.com or 523-2228.


More in News

The Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Encore docks in Juneau in October, 2022. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire File)
Ships in Port for t​​he Week of Sept. 17

Here’s what to expect this week.

Jordan Creek flows over a portion of a footbridge behind a shopping center Thursday evening. The National Weather Service has issued a flood warning for Jordan Creek, Montana Creek and Auke Lake until 10 a.m. Friday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Flood warning for Jordan Creek, Montana Creek and Auke Lake issued until 10 a.m. Friday

Glacier Highway, structures near Jordan Creek may inundated, according to National Weather Service.

Soon-departing Assembly member and Deputy Mayor Maria Gladziszewski smiles for a photo at her seat in the Assembly chambers Thursday afternoon. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire)
Q&A: Deputy Mayor Gladziszewski prepares for departure, shares advice to candidates

The long-serving Juneau Assembly member nears the end of her final term.

Participants in the 38th Annual International Coastal Cleanup carry a fishnet to a boat on a coast near Sitka in August. (Ryan Morse / Sitka Conservation Society)
Resilient Peoples and Place: Coastal cleanup removes 1,400 lbs. of trash from Sitka’s beaches

Effort by wide range of groups part of global project that has collected 350 million lbs. of waste.

Cars drive past the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation building in Juneau on Thursday. This year’s Permanent Fund dividend will be $1,312, the state Department of Revenue announced. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire)
This year’s official Permanent Fund dividend: $1,312

Distribution of payments will begin Oct. 5.

Albino Mbie, a Mozambique-born musician whose band is now based in Boston, performs during a youth jam at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall on Wednesday night as a prelude to the Áak’w Rock Indigenous music festival that starts Thursday. His band is scheduled to perform at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Áakʼw Rock ready for full-fledged opening as ‘monumental, historic event’

Youth jam Wednesday offers preview as only Indigenous music festival in U.S. makes in-person debut.

This is a photo of the front page of the Juneau Empire on Sept. 21, 2005. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire)
Empire Archives: Juneau’s history for the week of Sept. 24

Three decades of capital city coverage.

Photo of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Jarvis, date unknown. (Courtesy of Jack Hunter/ All Present and Accounted For)
Of things Jarvis, heroic men and reindeer

Author Steven Craig giving a talk on David Jarvis and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Jarvis

Eleven of the 14 candidates seeking four seats on the Juneau Assembly in the Oct. 3 municipal election answer questions during a forum Friday night at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Assembly candidates challenged to offer plan of action, not just talk, at Tlingit and Haida forum

11 of 14 contenders for four seats get extra time to respond to some tough questioning.

Most Read