Alaska Economy

The oil and gas industry is the largest measure of the state's economy, with nearly 85 percent of the state budget supplied by oil revenues.

Thousands of residents are employed in oilfield-elated occupations. The buy-out of Arco by British Petroleum will result in upwards of 400 fewer jobs in the industry.
Tourism, commercial fishing, timber, mining and farming also
play an important role in the economy. The tourism industry, which attracts over one million visitors annually, is moving to boost year-round tourism.

Commercial fishermen harvest nearly six billion pounds of seafood, including millions of wild salmon, and groundfish, from fisheries carefully monitored by state and federal fisheries biologists. The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, lending support to entrepreneurs of new seafood products, is a major sponsor of the annual Symphony of Salmon competition to promote new value-added wild Alaska salmon products.

Alaska's timber industry supplies world markets with logs, lumber, pulp and other forest products from Chugach National Forest and Tongass National Forest, a 16.8-million-acre rain forest, plus state and private land holdings.

Alaska contains half the nation's coal reserves and its
largest silver and zinc mines. Gold glittering in Alaska streams and mountains still lures miners to work corporate and private claims.

The Alaska Miners Association (http://www.alaskaminers.org) formed in 1939, celebrating its 60th anniversary in 1999.

The mining industry provided some 3,452 full-time equivalent jobs in 1998, the latest year such statistics are available. Rising gold prices in late 1999 boosted industry spirits.

About 15 million acres of soil in Alaska are suitable for
farming, including one million acres currently in farms. Long summer days produce vegetables of extraordinary size, including cabbages weighing more than 90 pounds and 20-pound zucchini squash. There is a growing movement in the lush Matanuska Valley north of Anchorage for more organic crops.

Labor and industry trends are tracked by economists with the AlaskaDepartment of Labor and published monthly in Alaska Economic Trends.
In addition, rural Alaska has a substantial subsistence economy, with many residents dependent on fish, moose, caribou, seals, walrus and whales to feed their families. The subsistence lifestyle is important for its sustenance, as well as its historic cultural role in the lives of many Alaskans.