Alaska Politics Blog : CNN: Alaska catching up with the rest of the country on recession

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Contributors

Erika Bolstad

Erika Bolstad covers Alaska issues, including the congressional delegation, from Washington, D.C., for McClatchy Newspapers. Before joining the bureau in 2007, she spent seven years as a reporter at the Miami Herald, where she covered politics, government and the state legislature. E-mail Erika at ebolstad@adn.com.

Sean Cockerham

Sean Cockerham writes about Alaska state politics. He's worked for the ADN in Anchorage and Juneau, covered the legislature for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and covered Washington state politics for the Tacoma News Tribune. E-mail Sean at scockerham@adn.com

Kyle Hopkins

Kyle Hopkins covers rural affairs, general assignments and politics for the ADN. He covered the 2006 campaign for governor, has blogged extensively about Alaska politics, covered Anchorage city government and was a reporter based in the Mat-Su. He grew up in Southeast Alaska and previously wrote for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and Anchorage Press. E-mail Kyle at khopkins@adn.com and also find him on our rural Alaska blog, The Village.

Don Hunter

Don Hunter covers Anchorage city government and politics. He is a longtime ADN reporter and editor and wrote for the Anchorage Times. E-mail Don at dhunter@adn.com

David Hulen

David Hulen, the ADN's state and local news editor, is responsible for political coverage. He has been an editor and reporter at the ADN for more than 20 years. E-mail David at dhulen@adn.com

Features

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Sarah Palin

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Alaska political corruption

The FBI raided state legislature offices in Aug. 2006, and the fallout since has been epic in Alaska's political world.

CNN: Alaska catching up with the rest of the country on recession

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: October 19, 2009 - 9:47 am

Comments (0) |

CNN's "State of the Union with John King" looked at the Alaska economy over the weekend. Excerpt:

Brad Gillespie, the Anchorage, Alaska, regional manager for the job centers, says about 900 people a week visit the midtown facility. That's up 20 percent to 30 percent from the same time a year ago.

"We're a seasonal economy up here, and we're getting into winter season," Gillespie said. "So tourism is down. Construction work, too. "And the Anchorage International Airport is an international hub for freight operations, and that's been impacted by the economy turning down."

New numbers released Friday show that the state unemployment rate is 8.4 percent -- up from 6.7 percent a year ago. The job market is so tight that the state now posts a caution on its Division of Employment Security Web site suggesting people not move to Alaska unless they already have work lined up.

"We have a fair amount of people who think that Alaska is the promised land, and they have misconceptions maybe about what is up here. And they load up the family and head out on the Alaska highway, and we want to encourage them not to do that until they have something lined up before they get here," Gillespie said.

Full online story here.

Related: Alaska loses jobs for 5th straight month (ADN)

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