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About 11 percent of the $10.1 billion paid to people working in Alaska in 2003 went to nonresidents. Since 1993, nonresidents on average have brought home just more than 11 percent of the total wage and salaries paid in Alaska each year, according to the report.
The labor department's annual wage records do not account for the yearly earnings of the uniformed military and self-employed working in Alaska.
Nonresident workers can negatively affect the Alaska economy by taking their incomes Outside and depriving Alaska residents of jobs and income, among other drawbacks, the report said.
The average number Alaska residents who were unemployed in each quarter of 2003 varied from nearly 24,000 to about 30,000, compared to the number of nonresidents employed in Alaska ranging from about 25,000 to nearly 50,000.
In general, nonresidents tend to work in Alaska for a part of the year, coming to the state for seasonal jobs such seafood processing, said Andy Wink, state labor economist and co-author of the report.
At least a third of nonresidents working in Alaska in 2003 took entry-level, low-paying jobs, such as retail salesperson and seafood processing worker.
The seafood processing sector reported the greatest ratio of nonresident workers to resident workers in 2003, with seven out of every 10 workers considered a nonresident. Some 13,800 nonresidents earned $156.6 million of the $246.2 million paid to seafood processing workers in 2003, the report said.
In a few high-paying industries, including oil and air transportation, at least 20 percent of wages paid in 2003 went to nonresidents.
The 722 nonresident workers in Alaska's oil and gas extraction sector earned about $81 million in 2003, compared to the sector's 2,464 resident workers earning a total of nearly $261 million, according to the report.
Nonresidents made up about 43 percent of the pilots paid by Alaska employers in 2003, and they earned nearly half of the $141.5 million paid to pilots that year.
Construction, another high-paying industry, employed about 5,600 nonresidents in 2003, nearly 20 percent of industry's work force. As the construction industry grew in 2003, it gained 854 new workers, with only 71 jobs, or 12 percent, going to nonresidents.
"Although expanding industries usually exhibit an increase in nonresident hire rates, the construction industry countered this trend. Healthy growth occurred in construction and most of the new jobs went to Alaska residents," the report said.
Rebecca Logan, president and chief executive officer of the Alaska Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors Inc., attributed the year's high rate of resident hire to new apprenticeship programs and outreach promoting careers in construction.
Claire Chandler can be reached at claire.chandler@alaskajournal.com.
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