Research & Reports

Anchorage Employment Report: September 2022

AEDC was hopeful that job growth would continue its upward trajectory in September, finally surpassing pre- pandemic numbers on a monthly basis. However, Anchorage’s unemployment rate remained stubbornly low at 2.9%, which didn’t allow for future growth in the job market. The lack of available workforce continues to be the most significant barrier to job market growth.

Anchorage and Mat-Su’s largest employers continue to be government entities, like the Anchorage Municipality and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, health care providers, like Providence and the Southcentral Foundation, and education providers like the University of Alaska and the Anchorage School District. The most sought-after employees are registered nurses, retails salespersons (including front-line workers and their supervisors), stockers and order fillers, and human and social services assistants.

Because the availability of workforce affordable housing can be a barrier to recruiting out-of-state candidates, AEDC analyzes the real estate market each month. In September, the Anchorage housing market continued to have an extremely low inventory of single-family homes with homes being quickly purchased by eager buyers, but one point of relief for home buyers is that the average sales prices of single-family homes have continued to decrease month-over-month and September was no exception.