Nearly 1 percent of active residential mortgages in Alaska were in foreclosure at the end of the third quarter of 2011, in contrast to nearly 4 percent nationwide. The nation is still recovering from a severe jump in foreclosures at the height of the recent recession. There’s no question about it — national foreclosures were a crisis in 2009.

However, while Alaska more or less weathered the storm that battered so many communities, Alaska is no stranger to foul economic weather. Although Alaska’s rate has been far below the nation’s over the past few years, the recession in Alaska in the late 1980s was severe. Based on data collected by the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Alaska foreclosure rate at the height of the 1980s recession was higher than the national foreclosure rate in 2009.

U.S. Census Bureau hired 2,777 workers in Alaska for the 2010 Census, with salaries and reimbursements of about $27 million and the average worker making more than $9,000. Among these workers were enumerators — the ones doing the actual counting and follow-up in some hard-to-get-to areas.

Their temporary jobs ended in December 2010, and they have probably moved on to other adventures. But with all due respect to the men and women who combed the state looking for uncounted Alaskans in 2010, most of the challenges they faced performing their duties were probably tame compared to those who had that job 100 years ago. Adventure was just part of their job description.

From the report of the chief special agent in charge of counting in the Fourth District in 1910:

“Because of the absolute lack of beaten trails and the fact that the snow lies on ground loose like so much salt, no matter what the depth may be, it was necessary throughout all of their work to snowshoe ahead of their dog teams; and when one considers their isolation, often traveling for days without shelter other than a tent and fur robes, it can be understood to what sacrifice some of these men went to visit some of these far-away prospectors’ cabins and claims. However, no man who travels in this part of the country ever considers there is any hardship unless there is loss of life, and they take their work stoically and good-naturedly, though they drop in their tracks at the end of the day.

“That the service lost none of the men from freezing to death, and that every man returned safely is a matter of congratulation and good fortune.”

The same year, from a Second District report:

“On the way to the nearest camp the party was blown off a slope into an open mountain creek. The sled had to be rolled over to get it out of the stream and to free the baggage of water. Some of the baggage was spilled in the upset, and since life depended upon speed in the race to make a distant camp before freezing, the lost baggage, which included the census pouch, was not missed until the sled was unpacked. With clothing frozen stiff and various parts of the body frosted the little party succeeded in reaching the isolated camp for which they had set out. Three attempts were made subsequently to retrace their steps in order to recover the pouch but the storm was too severe to face. The agent enumerated the camp on some waste paper and returned about 200 miles for more census supplies.

“This agent’s next experience was in the mountains, where he found one of the survivors of the wrecked steamer Farullon, who had been living on native food, had frozen his fingers, and had himself cut off one gangrenous member’ with his knife. The enumerator could not leave a fellow being in this condition, and conveyed him to the nearest settlement, which was fully 60 miles away.”

Note: The Research and Analysis Section is creating historic maps, including these districts, that will soon be available on our Web site.

Initial claims for unemployment insurance (seasonally adjusted) in Alaska for the week ending Nov. 26 were down 767 from the previous week, to 2,333. The four-week moving average – which reduces the data’s week-to-week volatility and makes underlying trends more visible – was 2,558, down 63 from the previous week.

Alaska’s goal is to generate 50 percent of its electricity through renewable resources by 2025, according to a 2010 bill passed by the Legislature. And one thing we know Alaska has is an abundance of potential wind energy, especially along the coasts. Even a small child could tell you it’s very windy in parts of Alaska, and scientific data would back it up.

Electrical power generated by the wind seems like an easy and affordable way to help Alaskans beat the high cost of energy, but the realities of bringing that power to market are complex.

Wind turbines work well, but are expensive to install. Alaska’s unique environment can also mean higher construction costs and obstacles. Foundations built on permafrost, transporting equipment to remote locations, and arctic weather are just a few of the challenges. Also, most rural power stations operate independently of any larger electrical grid.

Alaska has 116 wind turbines installed in 26 communities, including projects that are nearly complete.[1] The existing projects, most of which are in small towns or villages along our western coastline, reduce the amount of diesel needed to power places such as Savoonga, Tin City, Hooper Bay, Perryville, Chevak, and Kongiganak. Although wind technology has been around for decades, most of these turbines are less than five years old.

In June, the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development published its first Alaska Green Jobs Report through a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. The report quantified green employment in Alaska for the first time, and researchers found green work in 145 occupations spread throughout Alaska’s industries. You can read the entire report here . For more on wind turbine technology in Alaska’s rural areas, see the feature “Renewable Energy in Alaska,” on page 12 of the Green Jobs Report.

[1] According to information provided by the Alaska Energy Authority.

(Click the maps below to enlarge.)

Alaska is a high-cost place to live, which can be especially challenging for those who have the least. To accommodate these high costs, federal poverty guidelines are 25 percent higher in Alaska than in the Lower 48. (Hawaii also has special poverty guidelines.) The guidelines are used to determine eligibility for a number of federal programs.

In Alaska in 2010, a person was considered to be living in poverty if he or she earned up to $13,600 annually, or up to $27,940 for a family of four. For comparison, the average annual wage in the state was $47,700, as shown in the chart below.

According to the 2010 American Community Survey, 9.9 percent of all individuals and 7.2 percent of families in Alaska were living at or below the poverty line.

Federal Poverty Guidelines for Alaska, 2010

Sources: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, U.S. Census Bureau

Initial claims for unemployment insurance (seasonally adjusted) in Alaska for the week ending Nov. 12 were down 458 from the previous week, to 2,171. The four-week moving average — which reduces the data’s week-to-week volatility and makes underlying trends more visible — was 2,518, down 199 over the previous week. The moving average is elevated in 2011, though still below 2010’s high point of 2,962.

 As shown below, average claims hovered around 1,750 for much of the last decade, but they climbed significantly in late 2008 due to the U.S. recession and remain at a historically high level.   

Mali Abrahamson, Department of Labor economist and author of the Bristol Bay regional profile in November’s Alaska’s Economic Trends responds to questions from Mike Mason of KDLG radio in Dillingham.

In the article, you wrote that the Bristol Bay region is in many ways the cultural and ecological crossroads of Alaska. Why is that?

As I was researching this article I learned the area is home to many different Alaska tribal groups, not just a few. Second, the fishermen, or any maritime activity, throughout history will have a more diverse workforce because of its mobile nature, picking up workers from all over the world. Ecologically and geographically, the variety of northern latitude ecosystems is as good as it gets: high mountain, tundra, big lakes, little lakes, big rivers, little rivers, and of course the ocean fisheries: not just salmon, but herring, crab, and  marine mammals.

Can you give me an overview of the migration patterns in the Bristol Bay region? 

In the short term, there is a repetitive seasonal migration as workers come to the canneries and other summer jobs. In the longer term, though, some years population grows and some years it declines. The 10-year trend shows a shrinking population. All three BORCAs (boroughs/census areas) have seen net out-migration that exceeds the natural population increase.

There is a variety of socioeconomic reasons people choose to move — from family to jobs to not liking the weather — but migration from rural areas to urban  is a common trait of economic development within a larger state or country. 

Do we have a good understanding of the employment picture in the region? Are there industry segments that are not represented or difficult to represent in the data?

The one big “gap” in our wage and salary employment that is critical to the region is seafood harvesters or fishermen. Because of unemployment insurance law, they are exempt from reporting wages or employment of crew. We do know how important those workers are to many agencies including the Department of Labor, and we have alternative methods of estimating how many workers are in the area without having access to the same records that we do for, say, school teachers.

The fishing industry dominates the economy in the summer. Can you characterize the economy the rest of the year?

Employment in the year-round economy is mostly about everyday living. Kids are going to school and people travel, buy groceries, go to the bank, and still transport goods. Any community needs health and social services year-round. So there are year-round private sector jobs in transportation, health care, retail, and a variety of other services while there are government jobs in education and, for example, the U.S. Postal Service. That being said, there are fishery-related jobs –  while not in the thousands — that remain in the area after the harvest seasons are over and through the winter months.

What did you learn or find interesting about the data, or about the region in your research?

I grew up in Homer so there was some general familiarity, but what continues to astound me about this area and the fishing industry is the human effort that surrounds these fisheries. The thousands of workers that flood in for the few short months in the summer and all the resources that they require as well as the logistical aspect of moving goods, people, and fish in and out in such a short time is fascinating.

Residential foreclosures in Alaska are down 14 percent from this time last year, at 333 statewide in the third quarter of 2011. Nearly 60 percent of those were in the Anchorage/Mat-Su region, where about half of Alaska’s population lives.

The number of foreclosures also fell in the Interior and Gulf Coast regions, which combined were home to another 30 percent of the statewide total. Foreclosures increased in Southeast, Southwest, and Northern regions, but these areas are too small to substantially impact the statewide number.

Residential foreclosures peaked in Alaska in the third quarter of 2008 at 408, and have remained higher than the 10-year average since late 2007. Third-quarter foreclosure numbers are typically higher than the other three quarters. The charts below show third-quarter foreclosure counts through the decade.

A comparison of third-quarter foreclosures

A comparison of third-quarter foreclosures from 2000 to 2011.

For more foreclosure comparisons, see The Alaska Housing Finance Corporation.

In the 2010 Census, Alaska had 54,938 senior citizens. If current projections are accurate, there could be 124,857 people ages 65 and older by 2034. With a major customer base for health care likely to increase by more than 125 percent, the population growth will most likely equate to continued industry growth.

Nine years of growth in Alaska health care

1 Employment in exhibits 1 and 2 includes public and private sectors.
2 ‘Other’ in Exhibit 1 includes other services, private education, social assistance, and wholesale trade.