Decmeber 3, 2013 — A new report from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, posted in the November issue of Alaska Economic Trends, shows that monthly jobs in seafood harvesting rose from 8,067 in 2011 to 8,189 in 2012.
Of that total, the salmon fisheries dominated in monthly employment, with 4,551 jobs, compared to 1,252 jobs in groundfish fisheries, 974 in halibut fisheries, 593 in crab fisheries, 502 in sablefish fisheries, 184 in miscellaneous shellfish fisheries and 128 in herring fisheries, according to the report by Jack Cannon and Josh Warren.
Statistics compiled by state and federal agencies, including the National Marine Fisheries Service, also showed that overall monthly harvesting employment compared with an average of 7,260 workers in 2007, 7,270 workers in 2008, 7,087 in 2009 and 7,871 workers in 2010.
While salmon generates more harvesting jobs than any other fishery, groundfish is the state's largest fishery in terms of both value and volume, with a relatively small number of large boats landing large quantities of those fish, mostly pollock, without need of proportionate increases in manpower.
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