ALASKA TRENDS.

The lack of available, skilled workers is a common topic of conversation among Alaska's business and community leaders. Many see the COVID-19 pandemic as a significant contributor to the lack of able-bodied, willing-to-work persons: the workforce directly suffered from the virus, they've been tempted away from working by heightened unemployment benefits, or they've been motivated by the global pandemic to rethink their skills and their careers. What's obvious, it seems, is that COVID-19 is the reason the labor force is shrinking--if there were seven dwarves working before the pandemic, we now only have four or five picking up their pickaxes.

In this case, though, the virus isn't to blame. In an excellent economic forecast for the Society for Marketing Professional Services in February, state economist Neil Fried spoke on Alaska's falling labor force participation, which is the percentage of the working age...