Small Businesses Optimistic for 2022, Survey Shows
The fifth annual survey by the Alaska Small Business Development Center at UAA finds a more positive attitude among business owners, compared to the challenges of the last two years.
The fifth annual survey by the Alaska Small Business Development Center at UAA finds a more positive attitude among business owners, compared to the challenges of the last two years.
A forecast for the Alaska economy in 2022 anticipates approximately the same 2.2 percent job growth as 2021, unless federal infrastructure spending rolls out quickly.
When 2022 arrived, Alaskans working for minimum wage received an annual inflation adjustment of zero, holding their pay at $10.34 per hour.
The state Department of Labor & Workforce Development puts the seasonally adjusted rate at 6.3 percent in September, a slight decrease from August and approximately the same level of unemployment Alaska saw from 2015 through 2017.
While nothing can be certain, projections are that by the second half of the year most of the city’s major industries will see some growth.
Economists were cautiously optimistic in their predictions for what 2020 would hold for the state’s economy. What none of them saw coming—what nobody saw coming—was the COVID-19 pandemic and the crippling economic damage it would cause.
Local manufacturing businesses and jobs have experienced a resurgence in recent years that needs to continue for our state’s livelihood and connection to the global economy.
Whether the mines produce zinc, lead, coal, gravel, silver, or gold, the direct and indirect financial impacts on the surrounding area are significant, according to a McDowell Group report commissioned by the Alaska Mining Association.
Governor Mike Dunleavy announced the creation of the Alaska Economic Stabilization Team, a group of leaders who will work with the Dunleavy administration on a plan to protect the state’s economy from the impact of COVID-19 in Alaska.
Most experts indicate that the Last Frontier has turned the corner and in 2020 will claw its way out of the recession that started several years ago. However, the recovery is not expected to be uniform, as Anchorage remains in recession and many of the impacts of the state’s budget cuts have yet to play out.