Alaska Loses Jobs For 5th Straight Months (apartment, home)

[Alaskapat528]

Originally Posted by Barkingowl

What might save the tourism industry is promoting Alaska as a travel destination for the rest of the world.

Barking, what happened with the possible job up here and if offered it, are you hesitant due to the economy?

[Moose Whisperer]

Here's someone saying it better than me:

Alaska at a tipping point
Oil and gas drive, but how long?
Jay Ramras, Community Perspective
Published Sunday, October 11, 2009

When Ebenezer Scrooge was confronted by the ghosts of the past, present and future, he was changed. With nonprofits, associations, communities and advocacy groups preparing their priority lists for the upcoming legislative session in January, it is a natural time to take stock of Alaska’s past and present and seriously ask ourselves: What Alaska do we want into the future, not just in 2010, or 2014, but during our second 50 years of statehood?

In Alaska, the Institute of Social and Economic Research serves as the proverbial ghost of our past and present. If we look to our past, we can readily see the precariousness of our present. Roughly two-thirds of the growth in Alaska’s economy since statehood is directly attributable to oil. As University of Alaska Fairbanks Professor Terrence Cole notes, in economic terms: “Prudhoe Bay oil was worth more than everything that has been dug out, cut down, caught or killed in Alaska since the beginning of time.”

The influence of oil revenue on Alaska is all around us. ISER’s economists describe Alaska’s economy as a three-legged stool resting on the federal government, oil and everything else. While Alaskans are accustomed to predictions that the sky is falling and have grown tired of economists and politicians crying “wolf,” there are troubling signs in Alaska’s economy.

The Alaska Railroad recently cut one out of every five jobs due to declining revenue — primarily due to a dramatic slowdown at Ted Stevens International Airport. Less demand for jet fuel at the Anchorage airport really means less production at the Flint Hills refinery in Fairbanks. The railroad is merely the middle-man between two crucial elements of our regional economies. Layoffs at the railroad are simply an expression of troubles regionally. We can no longer afford to be passive in recognizing state and regional interconnections.

Will the ghost of Alaska’s future show us the trans-Alaska pipeline’s flow down to 500,000 barrels per day, edging precariously close to inadequate flow levels, because we curtailed development with “Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share” — a tax that has proved to strangle exploration, be globally regressive and unduly burdensome on the declining fields of the North Slope?

Will the Agrium plant on the Kenai Peninsula be up and running, producing fertilizer at a price Alaska farmers can afford and providing 600 jobs on the Kenai Peninsula, or will the plant have been scrapped and sold to China?

Will the cruise ship head tax be a large fund in the state’s treasury, encumbered by multi-decade long litigation, while tourism is strangled as cruise ship passenger numbers continue to decline?

Will Conoco be forced to pursue an import certificate for their liquefied natural gas facility, ending 40 years of exports? Will regulatory constraints lead to a lack of gas exploration in the Cook Inlet basin, setting the stage for an isolationist Alaska, rich in resources, yet dependant on foreign imports? Will our natural gas come from imports while we wait like Don Quixote for the ever-elusive, large-diameter pipe to be built?

Will the promotion of development on the outer-continental shelf and the unfaltering belief that the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act will lead us to fiscal certainty, and an eventual pipeline, cloud the issues that truly require our action today?

Will diesel-tethered Fairbanks resemble Flint, Mich.? Will our western hubs and villages resemble ghost towns? Will Alaskans be forced to relocate south to survive on imported gas, while owning vast resources in this state?

We can control the direction of our economy into the next 50 years. We must be self-reliant and commit willfully to changing the predictable outcome of our current path. Now is the time for the Alaska Legislature and the administration to roll up their sleeves and begin working on solutions, through the public process that gathers ideas from far afield and close to home — from experts, advocacy groups and you. We need a new vision of Alaska’s future that eliminates today’s negative economic drivers and builds an economic base that is independent, strong and diversified for all Alaskans. The actions or inactions we choose to take today will determine our path into the next 50 years.

Jay Ramras, a businessman and lifelong Fairbanks resident, has represented District 10 — eastern Fairbanks and Fort Wainwright — in the Alaska House of Representatives since his election as a Republican in 2004.

newsminer.com • Alaska at a tipping point

[Alaskapat528]

Excellent post Moose!

[Barkingowl]

Originally Posted by Alaskapat528

Barking, what happened with the possible job up here and if offered it, are you hesitant due to the economy?

Not hesitant at all Pat. I have three applications submitted one in Anchorage, one in Seward & one in Sitka. Just waiting to see what happens...

[Moose Whisperer]

Originally Posted by Barkingowl

Not hesitant at all Pat. I have three applications submitted one in Anchorage, one in Seward & one in Sitka. Just waiting to see what happens...

Only the one in Sitka is really in Alaska. The other two are fake!

[Marty Van Diest]

Thanks Moose...I'll use that one.

[Barkingowl]

Originally Posted by Moose Whisperer

Only the one in Sitka is really in Alaska. The other two are fake!

LOL! The one in Sitka is actually in my field. The other two involve being re-educated...

[Moose Whisperer]

Originally Posted by Marty Van Diest

Thanks Moose...I'll use that one.

Just one more reason why I always stay at Pikes when I'm up in Fbks!

[Grannysroost]

Originally Posted by Barkingowl

LOL! The one in Sitka is actually in my field. The other two involve being re-educated...

So you wouldn't have a real job right away...With everything that has been on this board..,knowing the prices to live in Sitka...I think I would regroup and look for another location in the lower 48...let go of the OCD with Alaska leaving your wife and family...Hold tight until the right time comes...this surely is not it unless you are willing to give up it all....

[Alaskapat528]

[quote=Grannysroost;11259802]So you wouldn't have a real job right away...With everything that has been on this board..,knowing the prices to live in Sitka...I think I would regroup and look for another location in the lower 48...let go of the OCD with Alaska leaving your wife and family...Hold tight until the right time comes...this surely is not it unless you are willing to give up it all....[/QUOTE]


I have to go with Deb on this one and neither one of us wants to discourage you Barking, but unless it was a "for sure" job with a real good salary (and problem is there are no "for sure" jobs right now), I'd think it over very carefully. Economy is reallllllly shakey; how often would you be able to go home to visit your wife and family (expensive).