The state has experienced slow and steady growth in employment since 1988, adding new jobs each year at rates ranging from about a half of a percentage point to upward of 2.5 percent.

2005 fits the trend perfectly: Gaining jobs at a rate of 1.3 percent to make Alaska's nonfarm wage and salary work force 308,100 strong, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development's May 2004 forecast. The department's employment forecast does not account for the self-employed.

More than one-third of next year's estimated 4,100 new jobs are expected to come from the educational and health services sector, continuing the health care industry's recent expansion but at a more moderate rate, the department's forecast said.

Between 2001 and 2004, the state gained 6,800 new educational and health services jobs, increasing the sector's employment by a rate of at least 5.5 percent each year. The state labor department forecasts this sector will continue to expand in 2005 at rate of 4.3 percent, or 1,500 new jobs, for a total of 36,200 jobs statewide.

As Alaska's major medical centers usher in the new year, they all have job openings created by hospital expansions, work force shortages and the need to replace former employees.

Nicole Welch of Fairbanks Memorial Hospital said she expects the Interior hospital to increase its staff of 1,260 people by a few percentage points in 2005. On average, the hospital has between 40 and 50 openings and hires about 350 people a year, she said.

Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage is in need of radiologists, nurses and pharmacists, according to assistant director of human resources Patty Harrison. Along with a nationwide shortage of nurses, hospitals throughout the United States are scrambling to find pharmacists willing to fill their around-the-clock needs as more of them are drawn to the relatively normal hours at retail outlets like Wal-Mart and Fred Meyer, Harrison said.

Another problem area for hospital recruiters is specialty positions, such as critical care nursing. "It just seems like we are going more and more into an era of specialties; it fine-tunes that recruiting need," she said.

Harrison is working to fill about 25 specialty positions created when Alaska Regional in November opened a heart center and an orthopedic and spine center as part of the hospital's expansion of its cardiology, orthopedic and surgical services.

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium - which operates the Alaska Native Medical Center and health clinics throughout rural Alaska as well as other heath-related programs - will likely grow in 2005, adding more employees to the nonprofit organization's staff of about 1,700 people, said recruitment and staffing manager Barbara Fleek. In particular, the consortium is seeking qualified Alaska Natives and American Indians to join its staff of which 43 percent are Native.

Other industries also will be hiring

Another industry expected to outpace the state's overall employment growth in 2005 is construction. Dick Cattanach, executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Alaska, said highway and military spending will drive much of the construction industry's estimated 2.3 percent employment growth, or 400 new jobs for a total of 17,800 jobs.

A weak dollar in 2005 will likely encourage tourists to visit Alaska instead of making less-economical trips to Europe or Asia. More tourists next year could translate into 600 new jobs in Alaska's leisure and hospitality sector, an increase of 2 percent to 30,900 jobs, the labor department's May 2004 forecast said.

Mining is also expected to create new jobs in 2005 as companies invest in gold mines across the state, including the Pogo mine near Delta Junction, Kensington mine near Juneau, and Rock Creek near Nome, according to state economist Neal Fried.

An increase in the volume of air cargo passing through Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport could also bring new jobs to Alaska, he said.

By summer 2005, the airport expects its air cargo traffic to increase by about 10 percent to some 660 wide-body airplane landings a week as carriers begin flying new routes between the United States and China, said Linda Close, the airport's marketing director.

While construction of the potential natural gas pipeline is years off, optimism that the project will be underway soon could spur economic growth and create jobs, Fried said. "Beyond that, there are those potential surprises out there - good and bad - that nobody without incredible clairvoyance can predict."

Job recruitment on campus picks up

Finding a job could be a little easier for next year's college graduates as more companies recruit on Alaska's largest campuses in 2005.

Directors of the career services centers at the University of Alaska's Fairbanks and Anchorage campuses expect a recent increase in recruitment by employers to continue in 2005, according to Kate Ripley, director of University of Alaska's office of public affairs.

Ten employers had visited UAF by the end of November, five less than the total number of employers who visited the campus during the 2003-2004 academic year, Ripley said. As the recruitment season picks up in January, she said the UAF career services director expects more engineering and accounting firms, as well as nonprofit organizations and local companies to visit the campus to meet with prospective employees.