Jobs.

• Author: Robinson, Dan
• Position: 2007 Alaska Forecast - Brief article

Last year, for the 19th consecutive year, Alaska added jobs to its economy. It's an impressive streak, especially given the two national recessions that occurred over that period, declining oil production from the North Slope, and oil prices throughout much of the 1990s below $15 a barrel and occasionally as low as $9 a barrel.

So what economic factors are responsible for the more than 100,000 new jobs the state has added since 1987? An incomplete list of contributing factors includes tourism growth, significant federal and state government spending, oil-related investment income, an increasing ability to provide services that used to come from the Lower 48, and the growing importance of Anchorage as a link in the international air cargo chain.

Will the growth continue in 2007 and extend the streak to...