Last year the oil and gas industry employed an all-time high of 11,400 workers, said state labor economist Dan Robinson.

Minerals from the state's mines were worth $2.9 billion in 2006, a significant increase from 2005's figure of $1.4 billion. Conflicts with some of Alaska's other resource-based industries may slow growth, Robinson said, but there's little doubt that mining's influence is growing or that it will boost the economy in 2008.

With an aging workforce - an estimated 3,000 oil and gas workers are set to retire this year - and many large-scale projects coming on line over the next decade, economists, educators and industry members predict Alaska's employee shortage will only increase over the next 10 years.

According to Dave Rees, senior resourcing specialist with BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., it's not just the proposed natural gas pipeline that's exacerbating the worker shortage.

“The ongoing work in oil, gas and mining is telling us we have some issues with hiring,” Rees said. “There are some jobs we see right now that definitely have a shortage.”

Engineers, electricians and heavy-truck drivers are just a few of the roughly 113 occupations currently experiencing shortages.

The University of Alaska is working to double its engineering program graduates over the next five years, “but it takes four to five years or more before someone gets a degree. There's not enough graduates coming out now to fill the engineering gaps,” Rees said.

Exacerbating the problem is Alaska's age demographics. According to Rees, the state has two bubbles in its population: Young folks and those approaching retirement age.

“What we're lacking is that population in the middle,” Rees said.

The long and the short of it

Students of the Anchorage Construction Academy work plumb a wall during training. The industry has worked to train hundreds of Alaskans for jobs. File Photo/Melissa Campbell/AJOC

“We need to start very early in the school system letting students know what's out there. A lot of young people are deselecting at an early age. We need to tell them about jobs in mining and oil and gas. That's really the point - it's a long-term solution.”

Fred Esposito, director of the Alaska Vocational Technical Center, has been working over the past eight months to help develop training plans and programs for the construction, maintenance and operations of a gas pipeline.

“We do have a shortage of workers now and we know that shortage will grow,” Esposito said. “We're working to define the issues, problems and solutions.”

Both Rees and Esposito agree there is no definitive short-term solution to Alaska's current labor shortage, but apprenticeship programs allow people to learn and earn as they go, meaning entry-level positions are filled almost immediately and skilled workers receive on-the-job training for what Rees calls long-term “legacy jobs.”

Rural Alaskans could help fill both long- and short-term employment gaps, but education is limited outside the state's urban areas.

“We have a large rural population that really has limited access to these training programs,” Rees said. “We've got an untapped resource out there that could help us very much.”

Last spring, Gov. Sarah Palin passed legislation that allocated funds to five pilot programs in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, Ketchikan, Fairbanks, Juneau and Kenai, in addition to the Anchorage Construction Academy.

Students choose from several career paths at the academy. The skills they acquire are in high demand all over the state, and many of those skills translate into mining and pipeline jobs.

According to Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Click Bishop, the pilot program is looking to expand to rural hub communities throughout the state.

Educating today's youth for tomorrow's jobs

According to Esposito, the state has slowly stripped money from vocational training. “We're trying to change all that,” he said.

Commissioner Bishop said Alaska's Work Ready/College Ready program gives Alaska students and job seekers the basic skills required by post-secondary education and virtually all careers.

“It's the first step in getting vocational education back in the system,” Bishop said.

He said the Legislature has increased its educational funding for fiscal year 2008 and the governor has proposed to add $2 million to the university system in fiscal year 2009.

Rees said UAA's Alaska Native Science and Engineering program is doing well, and there is a lot of industry support for the program.

This year, BP's foundation awarded the program $3,000. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., Shell Exploration and Production Co. and ConocoPhillps Alaska Inc. also provided funding amounts to the Alaska Process Industry Careers Consortium, Rees said.

Rees said meeting Alaska's labor shortage requires a multifaceted approach.

“We need to make sure we have good bridging from secondary to post-secondary schools,” he said. “We need apprenticeship and college programs in place. Education, industry involvement, good coordinated programs at the post-secondary level and on-the-job training. Even with all that, we'll still have to import some workers.”

Bishop said Alaska will never have 100 percent in-state hire, “but we can do a better job. We'll never meet our worker shortage, but there's a lot of room to expand registered apprenticeships and grow our workforce. There are people out there who are doing some really good things. We need to build on those successes and expand them.”