The number of nonresidents working in Alaska hit a new record in 2023 and all major industries are relying more heavily on workers who do not live in the state, according to the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Nonresident workers in Alaska totaled 92,664 in 2023 and made up 23.5% of the workforce, the highest percentage since 1995, according to an annual report published by the department that is mandated by state law.
Typically, about one in five workers in Alaska is not a resident of the state, and certain seasonal industries, such as seafood processing, have long relied out-of-state labor.
But nearly all Alaska industries need nonresident workers, and nearly all increased that reliance in 2023, said Rob Kreiger, a state economist who summarized the data in an article in the February issue of Alaska Economic Trends, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s monthly research magazine. Kreiger also co-authored the department’s annual report.
The increased reliance on nonresident workers coincides with a 12-year streak of net outmigration — meaning more people leaving the state than moving in — and a loss of working-age adults.
Kreiger said 2023 is the most recent year for which the department has full data. The 2024 data will not be available until next January, he said.
The trends shown now may well be continuing, he said. “I would not want to speculate, but I do think the workers shortage persisted in 2024, which could result in numbers similar to what we saw in 2023,” he said by email.
The department uses Alaska Permanent Fund dividend applications to analyze worker residency.
In 2023, the biggest percentage increase in nonresident employment in 2023 was in the construction sector, Kreiger reported in his analysis. Construction job growth has largely been driven by projects funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and by increased oil activity, Kreiger’s article said.
While the construction industry accounted for 6% of Alaska’s nonresident workforce, its nonresident hire increased by 24%, according to his analysis. The most dramatic increase in nonresident construction hiring was on the North Slope, where the nonresident construction workforce nearly tripled from 2022 to 2023, jumping from 255 to 745.
Construction is project-based, making it a good fit for nonresident workers, Kreiger said.
This year, construction spending is forecast to total $6.7 billion, up from the 2024 estimate of $6.36 billion, according to an annual estimate commissioned by the Associated General Contractors of Alaska. Spending is expected to be split almost evenly between private and public sector work.
There are some new uncertainties about that forecast, however. President Donald Trump ordered a freeze on infrastructure spending authorized by the 2021 act, a signature accomplishment of former President Joe Biden’s administration, and the fates of many authorized projects are unclear.
In the oil and gas industry, 37.4% of the workers were nonresidents in 2023, up from 36% the year prior, according to the state’s annual report. Among oil and gas workers whose jobs are on the North Slope, 45% were nonresidents that year, according to the report.
In the metals mining industry, nonresidents accounted for 41.6% of workers, up slightly from the 41.1% in 2022, according to the department’s annual report.
Seafood processing, which has traditionally relied on nonresidents to fill most of its jobs, was even more reliant on those workers in 2023, according to the department’s annual report. That year, 82.8% of the workers were nonresident, and the percentage has crept up steadily since 2014 and 2015, when about 74% of seafood processing workers were not Alaska residents, the annual report said.
Tourism is another seasonal industry with a longtime reliance on nonresident workers that increased in 2023. That year, 34% of workers in the visitor-related industry were nonresidents, up slightly from 32.6% in 2022.
Two nonseasonal industries that became more reliant on nonresident workers were health care and local and state government.
Nonresidents made up 14.1% of Alaska’s health care workers in 2023, up from 13.5% the previous year, according to the annual report. Among registered nurses working in Alaska in 2023, 20.5% were nonresidents, according to the report.
Although its reliance on out-of-state workers has increased, the health care sector still has a lower percentage of nonresident workers than Alaska’s statewide average, the report noted. And nonresident health care workers “are among the most likely to be identified as residents the next year,” compared to other nonresident workers, said the report.
In state and local government, nonresidents made up 9.3% of the workforce in 2023, compared to 8.8% in the previous year. The dominant occupations within the broad category are in education, and 14.9% of Alaska teachers and instructors in 2023 were nonresidents, according to the state’s report. The state and local government sector has historically been among the least reliant on nonresident workers, the report noted.
• Yereth Rosen came to Alaska in 1987 to work for the Anchorage Times. She has reported for Reuters, for the Alaska Dispatch News, for Arctic Today and for other organizations. She covers environmental issues, energy, climate change, natural resources, economic and business news, health, science and Arctic concerns. This article originally appeared online at alaskabeacon.com. Alaska Beacon, an affiliate of States Newsroom, is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.
