Southwest Alaska: a vastly remote region.

• Author: Barbour, Tracy
• Position: Regional Review - Health care is biggest employer, unemployment and poverty are high - State overview

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Sen. Mark Begich dropped in for an unscheduled tour of the new Association of Village Council Presidents Regional Housing Authority (AVCP-RHA) headquarters building his recent visit to Bethel Oct. 5. The regional office building will serve as the central headquarters for the housing authority, which provides quality, affordable housing in 48 villages throughout Southwest Alaska. of the $12.5 million total cost, AVCP RHA received $5 million in Stimulus funding for the project. The project has had 100 percent Native hire, created 30 jobs, and paid nearly $400,000 to date in wages. The building is expected to be completed in November 2011. The housing authority has benefited from $10 million in Stimulus funding for regional projects, creating well more than 60 jobs and contributing more than $2 million to date in wages to the local economy.

Southwest Alaska is a massive region stretching hundreds of miles from the Bering Sea coast to Cook Inlet. It has no definite geographic boundaries, but is generally associated with Alaska's Bethel Census Area, Dillingham Census Area, Aleutians East Borough, Aleutians West Census Area, Lake and Peninsula Borough and Wade Hampton Census Area.

The southwestern region is dominated by an assortment of smaller, rural communities, many of which are lacking in infrastructure and industry. They are sustained in large part by government jobs, natural resources and subsistence activities. The Bethel Census Area is a prime example. The area, which has been home to the Yup'ik Eskimo for 3,000 years, is about the size of Kentucky. With a 2009 population estimate of 17,352, it is the regional center for transportation, retail trade, medical services and government.

The Bethel Census Area has a small seasonal economic base fueled by natural resources, particularly salmon and herring roe, and subsistence activities. Government jobs--primarily public education and village organizations--account for almost 50 percent of the region's payroll jobs, according to Alaska Department of Labor economist Alyssa Shanks.

"Forty-one percent of all jobs and 33 percent of all wages in 2008 came from jobs for local governments, which include city and tribal government, and public schools," Shanks says in an Alaska Labor Department November 2009 Alaska Economic Trends report.

HEALTH CARE BIGGEST EMPLOYER

Health care is the largest segment of all private employment and wages in the census area, comprising 16 percent of employment and 25 percent of wages in 2008, according to Shanks. The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp. is the largest private employer in the area and was the 16th largest in the state in 2008. It operates the 50-bed Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Regional Hospital in Bethel, five regional clinics in the Wade Hampton Census Area and the Community Health Aide Program that provides primary health...