AUGUST 1998 TRENDS ALASKA ECONOMIC

Trends 100 by Industry1997EmploymentMININGHard Rock MiningCominco AlaskaFairbanks Gold Mining Company (Ft. Knox)Oil & GasARCO AlaskaVECOBP ExplorationAlaska Petroleum ContractorsPeak Oilfield Service CompanyNabors DrillingSchlumberger TechnologiesDoyon DrillingCONSTRUCTIONHC URINGSeafood ProcessingTrident SeafoodsUniSeaTyson Seafood CompanyPeter Pan SeafoodCook Inlet ProcessingIcicle SeafoodsNorth Pacific ProcessorsOcean Beauty SeafoodsNorquest Seafood CompanyWards Cove Packing CompanyInternational Seafoods of AlaskaWestward SeafoodWood ProductsKetchikan Pulp Company (closed 3/1997)Silver Bay LoggingOther ManufacturingUnion Oil of California (Unocal)Anchorage Daily 3522TRANSPORTATION, COMMUNICATIONS, UTILITIESAir TransportationAlaska Airlines1,449Federal Express887ERA Aviation655United Parcel Service (UPS)383Peninsula Airways346Reeve Aleutian Airways336Dynair Services335Northwest Airlines299Communications & UtilitiesGCI munications & Utilities (cont.)Chugach Electric AssociationMatanuska Telephone AssociationOther TransportationAlyeska Pipeline Service CompanyLaidlaw TransitSea-Land Freight ServiceWestours MotorcoachesRoyal Highway ToursTRADEEating & DrinkingAramark Leisure ServicesPizza HutBurger KingNANA/Marriott, Joint VentureSky ChefsDenali Foods/Taco BellMcDonaldsDoyon/Universal Ogden, Joint VentureOther RetailCarr Gottstein FoodsFred MeyerWal-Mart/Sam's ClubSafeway StoresKmartSears RoebuckSpenard Builders SupplyAlaska Commercial CompanyJ C Penney CompanyCostcoTesoro Northstore Company (7-11)Williams, Inc. (Alaskan and Proud)Mapco ExpressLamonts ApparelNordstromThrifty Payless (sold to: Rite Aid in 1998)Alaska Sales and ServiceOmni EnterprisesWholesaleAnchorage Cold Storage CompanyFINANCE, INSURANCE & REAL ESTATENational Bank of AlaskaFirst National Bank of AnchorageAlaska USA Federal Credit UnionSERVICESHotelsWestmark HotelsAlyeska ResortALASKA ECONOMIC TRENDS AUGUST, 213062562462611,171801722542519

Trends 100 by Industry1997EmploymentHotels (cont.)Alaska Hotel Properties (Princess Hotels)383Captain Cook Hotel360Anchorage Hilton Hotel330Sheraton Anchorage Hotel240Personnel ServicesChugach North Technical Services335Health CareProvidence Alaska Medical Center2,844Lutheran Health System(former: Fairbanks Memorial Hospital)1,114Alaska Regional Hospital(former: Columbia AK Regional Hospital) 749Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation689Southeast Alaska Regional Health Corporation 558Valley Hospital427Norton Sound Health Corporation412Maniilaq Association3791997EmploymentHealth Care (cont.)Bristol Bay Area Health CorporationKetchikan General HospitalSouthcentral FoundationOther ServicesTanana Chiefs ConferenceOgden Facility Management of AlaskaSalvation Army - AlaskaHope CottagesASSETSSpace MarkRural Alaska Community Action ProgramPiping Design Services325307263557481375364332295286266Note: Based on 1997 average employment. Firms with identicalemployment ranked by unrounded employment.Source: Alaska Department of Labor, Research and AnalysisSection.Comparing the Top Ten Over the Past DecadeRankTop 10 Employers in 1997Rank123456789Carr Gottstein FoodsProvidence Alaska Medical CenterFred MeyerARCO AlaskaAlaska AirlinesWal-Mart/Sam's ClubVECONational Bank of AlaskaLutheran Health System(former: Fairbanks Memorial Hospital)Safeway Stores123103456789104Top 10 Employers in 1987ARCO AlaskaCarr-GottsteinProvidence Hospital(now: Providence Alaska Medical Center)BP ExplorationLutheran Hospital & Homes Society, Fbks(now: Lutheran Health System)VECOSafeway StoresAlyeska Pipeline Service CompanyAlascom (now: ATT/Alascom)National Bank of AlaskaSource: Alaska Department of Labor, Research and Analysis Section.ALASKA ECONOMIC TRENDS AUGUST, 19987

The big movers are adiverse group this yearamong the Trends 100 was 87,693.Nearly 11 percent of the employmentfor the state’s biggest employers isoil industry related versus fourNo particular trend describes percent of the workforce for the entirecompanies that have climbed by 10 private sector.or more rankings. (See Exhibit 7.)Two are tourism-related busi- Native organizationsnesses—Alaska Hotel Properties(Princess Hotels) and Aramark are well representedLeisure Services. Alaska HotelProperties opened the new McKinley Thirteen of the Trends 100 employersView Lodge near Talkeetna in 1997. are either Native Alaskan nonprofitThree of the big movers are seafood organizations or subsidiaries of oneprocessing companies operating in of Alaska’s regional NativeKodiak. These plants may have taken corporations. (See Exhibit 8.)up some of the capacity lost at the Because this list representsfire-damaged Tyson plant, which was individual firms regardless ofonly partially operational in 1997. ownership, the role of regional NativeAggressive growth propelled GCI corporations in the state’s laborahead by 15 spots in the line-up. market is often partially concealed.Peak Oilfield Services benefited fromnew life in Alaska’s oil patch. Stronggrowth in the airline industry helpedtwo other big movers—Sky Chefs,which caters meals to airlines, andDynair, which provides a variety ofservices to airlines.The Trends 100 employmany people and paywellAlaska’s largest employers employnearly 59,000 wage and salaryworkers, or 30 percent of all privatesector wage and salary employees.In 1997, employment at the state’slargest enterprises grew by 2.5%,slightly stronger than the overallemployment growth rate of 1.8%.Stronger performance from theTrends 100 has been more the normthan the exception since 1985 whenthis list was first compiled. Helpingsustain growth in 1997 was a lack ofdownsizing activity among the state’slargest employers.In 1997, these employers paid outnearly 2.2 billion in wages. TheTrends 100 paid an average annualwage of 37,242 compared to anaverage of 28,113 for the remainingprivate sector. The strong presenceof the high-wage oil industry explainsmuch of the wage advantage. Theaverage wage for oil industry jobs8If subsidiaries of the regionalcorporations were combined, most oftheir parent corporations wouldappear in the Trends 100. Despitethis definitional limitation, theirrepresentation is significant.The largest firm in this grouping isAlaska Petroleum Contractors, awholly owned subsidiary for ArcticSlope Regional Corporation. It is the15th largest private sector employerin the state, with 912 employees. Ithas remained on this list for a decade.Two other oil field services companiesin this group are Doyon Drilling, awholly owned subsidiary of DoyonRegional Corporation, and PeakOilfield Services, which is partiallyowned by Cook Inlet RegionIncorporated. In addition, Doyon/Oil and Gas EmployeesEarn Biggest Share ofTrends 100 Payroll*Other4.1%Manufacturing12.1%5Oil & Gas25.0%Trans., %*Other: Includes Hard Rock Mining, Wholesale Trade, and Construction.Source: Alaska Department of Labor, Research and Analysis Section.ALASKA ECONOMIC TRENDS AUGUST, 1998

Universal Ogden JV and NanaMarriott JV both provide services inthe oil fields and other locations.Nonprofits are bigemployersFifteen nonprofits are among thestate’s largest employers. (SeeExhibit 9.) In fact, they employ 15percent of this workforce. Theirrepresentation grew in 1997 withthe addition of SouthcentralFoundation. Most of these nonprofitsprovide health care or, as at ManiilaqAssociation, a combination of healthcare and social services. A few arealso advocacy organizations. Most ofthe nonprofits rely heavily on publicsector revenues to operate.Trends 100 Newcomers6Doyon DrillingFairbanks Gold Mining CompanyOmni EnterprisesPiping Design ServicesRoyal Highway ToursSouthcentral FoundationSpace MarkThe dominance of health care helpsexplain why these nonprofits are Source: Department of Labor, Research and Analysis Section.often the largest or second largestemployers in their respectivecommunities. Providence AlaskaMedical Center, for example, is notFirms moving up 10 oronly the second largest employer inranks fromthe state, but it is also Anchorage’slargest employer. Other examplesinclude the Norton Sound HealthCorporation (Kotzebue), Bristol BayHealth Corporation (Dillingham),YukonKuskokwimHealthCorporation (Bethel), FairbanksMemorial Hospital (Fairbanks) andValley Hospital (Palmer). Healthcare provides lots of jobs partlybecause it is a labor-intensiveindustry that provides around-theclock and year-around service.Trends 100 Moversmore19967Alaska Hotel Properties (Princess Hotels)Aramark Leisure ServicesCook Inlet ProcessingDenali Foods/Taco BellDynairGCI CommunicationsInternational Seafoods of AlaskaNorth Pacific ProcessorsPeak Oilfield ServicesSky ChefsThe prominence of nonprofits on thislist will expand as governmentincreasingly turns to theseorganizations to provide services.One example of this trend is theimminent turnover of the AlaskaNative Medical Center in Anchorageto groups of nonprofit healthorganizations. Presently, nearly allof its 1,400 workers are federalgovernment employees. Eventually,these workers will be employees ofone nonprofit or a consortium ofnonprofits. In fact, one of the reasonsthe Southcentral Health Foundation Source: Department of Labor, Research and Analysis Section.made the list in 1997 was because itALASKA ECONOMIC TRENDS AUGUST, 19989

had already taken over some of theresponsibilities of the Alaska NativeMedical Center.The rest of the servicecompaniesMore than half of the employment inservices comes from the alreadymentioned nonprofit health caresector. (See Exhibit 3.) The onlyhealth care provider not includedamong the nonprofits is AlaskaRegional Hospital, a for-profitcompany. Outside of health care, thebig players in services are hotels.With the present boom in hotelconstruction, new hotels are likelyto find their way onto this list in thenear future.Many of Alaska s topemployers are Fortune500 companiesA little over a quarter of Alaska’slargest employers also share therarified company of the nation’sFortune 500 companies. (See Exhibit10.) They vary from ARCO Alaska toBurger King to Tyson Seafood Groupto Costco. In the previous Trends100 listing, there were 28 of thesecompanies versus 27 in 1997. KeyBank fell off the Trends 100 list in1997.Most oil industryemployers are in theTrends 100Unlike any other industry, nearlyall of the oil industry employers inthe state are represented on this list.In 1997, over 78 percent of all oilindustry employees were workingfor one of the state’s largest privatesector employers. Even though oilindustry employment dipped in 1997,its concentration of large employersdid not. As a capital-intensiveindustry, it generally favors bothlarge-producer and service companies. This trend is not expected tochange.Thirteen of the Trends100 Firms are Fully orPartially Owned orOperated by AlaskaNative Corporations orOrganizations8Alaska Petroleum ContractorsBristol Bay Area Health CorporationDoyon/Universal Ogden, Joint VentureDoyon DrillingManiilaq AssociationNana Marriott, Joint VentureNorton Sound Health CorporationPeak Oilfield Service CompanySouthcentral FoundationSoutheast Alaska Regional Health Corp.Space MarkTanana Chiefs ConferenceYukon-Kuskokwim Health Source: Alaska Department of Labor, Research and Analysis Section.Nonprofit OrganizationsEmploy Over 15 Percentof the Trends 100WorkforceProvidence Alaska Medical CenterLutheran Health SystemSoutheast Alaska Regional Health Corp.Tanana Chiefs ConferenceYukon Kuskokwim Health CorporationValley HospitalNorton Sound Health CorporationManiilaq AssociationSalvation Army - AlaskaHope CottagesASSETSBristol Bay Area Health CorporationKetchikan General HospitalRural Alaska Community Action ProgramSouthcentral 5307286263Source: Alaska Department of Labor, Research and Analysis Section.10ALASKA ECONOMIC TRENDS AUGUST, 1998

Retail s list is longIn 1997, the state’s retailersemployed nearly 30 percent of allTrends 100 workers, providing thesingle largest piece of thisemployment pie. (See Exhibit 1.)Unlike the past three to four years,their representation did not grow in1997. Apparently the industry istaking a temporary breather afterits explosive growth of the early tomid-1990s. Retail’s impact on payrollis significantly smaller than itsimpact on employment. Only 16percent of the Trends 100 payrollcomes from retail. (See Exhibit 5.)Low wages and a preponderanceof part-time employment reduceretailers’ contributions to payroll.(Retail includes eating and drinkingestablishments.) Moreover, althoughretailers provide many of the jobsrepresented by the Trends 100,nearly two-thirds of retail employment comes from smaller firms.For example, in 1997, the nearly3,500 retailers in the state who didnot make this list provided the bulkof the industry’s employment.Manufacturing is wellrepresentedAlthough manufacturing, with justeight percent of Alaska’s privatewage and salary workforce, is one ofthe state’s smaller employers,manufacturers employ 15 percent ofthe Trends 100 workforce. Twelve ofthe 16 manufacturing firms wereseafood processing companies, oneless than on the 1996 list. The twotimber firms were unchanged fromprevious years. However, next year,Ketchikan Pulp Company may notmake the list due to the closure of itspulp operation in early 1997.Alaska s Trends100 That AreAlso America sFortune 50010ARCO AlaskaATT/AlascomAnchorage Hilton HotelAramark Leisure ServicesAlaska Regional Health Corp.Burger KingCostcoFederal ExpressFred MeyerJ C PenneyKmartMapco ExpressMcDonaldsNana/Marriott, Joint VentureNordstromNorthwest AirlinesPizza HutSafeway StoresSea-Land Freight ServiceSears RoebuckSheraton Anchorage HotelTaco BellThrifty PaylessTyson Seafood GroupUnion Oil of California (Unocal)United Parcel Service (UPS)Wal-Mart/Sam's ClubSource: Alaska Department of Labor, Research and Analysis Section.ALASKA ECONOMIC TRENDS AUGUST, 199811

Employment in all ofthe airlines grewAlaska s Top 10Employers Includingthe Public SectorAlaska Airlines was one of sevenairlines that made 1997’s list of 100largest employers. All of the Trends100 airlines added employment in1997, so a majority of them also1997moved up the list. This result is not Rank Name of OrganizationEmploymentsurprising, given the presentdynamics of this industry.1Federal government17,3392State of Alaska15,791The financial group3University of Alaska5,434loses one4Anchorage School District5,2485Municipality of Anchorage3,553For the first time since 1989,6Carr Gottstein Foods3,192financial institutions on the Trends7Providence Alaska Medical Center 2,844100 list changed. Key Bank’s8Fred Meyer1,925downsizing dropped it off the list9FairbanksNorthStarSchoolDist.1,706entirely. Two banks and one credit10ARCO Alaska1,526union, National Bank of Alaska, FirstNational Bank of Anchorage andAlaska USA Federal Credit Union,still remain on the list of the state’s Source: Department of Labor, Research and Analysis Section.largest employers.Trends 100 employersare ubiquitous inAlaskaEven though nearly two-thirds ofthe Trends 100 employers have theirlargest work site or headquarters inAnchorage, fewer than 15 operateexclusively in the state’s largest city.For example, National Bank ofAlaska is headquartered inAnchorage but has branches in 28other communities around the state.Alaska’s largest employers can befound in all regions and sizes ofcommunities. None of the 12 fishprocessors, nor either of the twotimber firms, is based in Anchorage.Akutan, a small community in theAleutian Islands, hosts TridentSeafood Corporation’s largestprocessing plant.12Top 10 changes whenincluding the publicsectorWhen the public sector is included,the list of the state’s largestemployers changes dramatically.(See Exhibit 11.) With this change,only four private sector employersrank in the Top Ten: Carr GottsteinFoods, Providence Alaska MedicalCenter, Fred Meyer and ARCOAlaska. This result should not besurprising, since 27 percent of thestate’s workforce is employed in thepublic sector, and public sectororganizations tend to be large.Therefore, the public sector,11Headquarters orLargest ding the federal government,state government, the university, theAnchorage School District and theMunicipality of Anchorage, headsthis list. As the public sector’s shareof the workforce continues to decline,however, private sector employersare becoming a stronger force inAlaska’s economy.ALASKA ECONOMIC TRENDS AUGUST, 1998

Alaska s AlaskaEmploymentEconomy SceneHeats UpBY BRIGITTA WINDISCH-COLEEmail: Brigitta Windisch-Cole@labor.state.ak.usAlaska’s unemployment rate in May was the lowest rate for thatmonth in over 25 years. This is the fifth consecutive month that theunemployment rate continued to register significantly below theunemployment rate of one year ago. At 5.8%, this May’s unemployment ratedemonstrated a strong improvement over last year’s 7.8%. (See Exhibit 1.)Fewer than 18,500 Alaskans were jobless compared to nearly 24,350 a yearago. In Anchorage alone, the number of unemployed fell by 1,750. ThisMay, Anchorage’s unemployment rate matched the 4.2% U.S. civilian notseasonally adjusted jobless rate. (See Exhibit 5.)Alaska’s economy continued to addjobs, with 3,500 more jobs than inMay of 1997. Services, transportationand retail, which all cater to thevisitor industry, added the most jobs.Three hotels opened in Anchoragethis year, with a strong tourismseason on the horizon. HollandAmerica and Princess Tours will12%bring record numbers of cruisevisitors to the state.10%The Positive Trendof the State'sUnemploymentRate Continues1199710.2%199810.4%9.6%8.7%8%7.8%In addition to traditional ports of call8%7%in Southeast and Seward, cruise stops6.1%will include Kodiak, Homer and6%

Wholesale Trade, and Construction. Source: Alaska Department of Labor, . employment pie. 2 ALASKA ECONOMIC TRENDS AUGUST, 1998 Alaska Economic Trends is a monthly . the Employment Security Division and published by the Alaska Department of Labor, P.O. Box 21149, Juneau, Alaska 99802-