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Rainy Coast Information Meilani Schijvens at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
JUNEAU, Alaska (KINEE) – Each year, the Southeastern Conference conducts a regional business climate survey to track business confidence in Southeast Alaska.
Robert Venables, executive director of the South East Conference, and Melanie Schjvens of Rainy Coast Data presented the findings. It was the first release of 2023 and was shared at a Juneau Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Thursday.
Key receivers
Nearly two-thirds (65%) of regional business leaders have a positive view of Southeast Alaska’s business climate, the highest level of positivity since the survey began in 2010.
Shijven is used to highlighting.
“Looking at all the communities in the Southeast, Sitka has the most positivity. Juneau, we’re in the middle and last year was a little bit weaker because there were so many of us,” she said. “Wrangell sits at the bottom. And what you can see when you look at this is when you have those marinas, the communities with the largest marinas have the highest levels of positivity.”
Pelican had a high level of positivity despite the fact that large cruise ships did not enter.
Wrangell was the only “underwater” community with a poorer overall rating than their overall good rating.
About 100 businesses in Juneau responded to the survey, out of 370 businesses in the Southeast. The 370 businesses that responded represent 9,500 Southeast Alaska employees.
“Our Alaska Native businesses have the highest level of positivity in all of Southeast Alaska, followed by the visitors and tourism sector, the food and beverage business. And you know, we often put food and beverage together with tourism. So it makes sense. Those two sectors are very closely related.” “And at the bottom, we found only two sectors with a higher level of negativity than the level of positivity,” Schijvens said. That’s our seafood sector, we’ve had some tough times there and also non-transportation tourism.”
That’s why these types of studies are important, Venables added.
“This kind of information and economic planning has been key for a number of reasons. Number one, it helps the truth, how businesses across communities, across states feel. Policymakers at the local level, state level, federal level, use this information to help guide their response to the community.” “We’ve seen a lot of positive action.”
Venbles said the Southeast Conference values strategic partnerships to help the economic development community work together.
He spoke about the Mariculture Initiative to inform rural communities and help communicate their maritime industry and transport needs. Both Schijvens and Venables expressed excitement about the federal funding approved for Alaska’s transportation needs across the state. U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski has authorship and credit for this primary.
This year’s Southeastern Conference Annual Meeting will be September 19-21 in Sitka.
12-month view
Schijvens compared societal attitudes.
“Skagway, Gustavus, Hunah, Sitka and Juneau. People who say it’s going to be better or better are looking forward. So you’re going to see very strong positive ratings across the board for those with larger cruise ships. Communities,” she said. “On the other hand, communities with a very poor outlook on the future, Wrangell, Prince of Wales, Petersburg, are again the same story – communities with a poor outlook have small marinas and seafood ports.”
Skagway was at the top of the list to look forward to after recovering from the rock shock and the lack of tourism due to the pandemic.
10% of Southeast business leaders think it will get worse or worse and 11% say it will stay the same, which is not a good thing. Overall 21% negative and 79% positive.
Since 2010, the second is a good attitude.
Businesses are hiring.
30% of employers are hiring.
Another important point is that if businesses can only find employees, their 12-month outlook will be positive.
“They say business is good. Business is good and I can hire people…not local people. The internet works both ways. So now it’s easier for people in Juneau to say I’ve hired a new person.” Again in Portland, I hired a new person, they are in Vermont. I can continue my business,” Schijvens explained. “I have more work than I thought. I’ve got a lot of money coming in. That’s a positive business outlook. But this does not mean that the struggle to find workers is a negative for the business. We have a lot of work to do with the staff we have.
More than half (52%) reported being unable to hire people due to a lack of housing, while 51% of Southeast business leaders cited childcare as a reason.
They identified a lack of housing and childcare as key reasons for labor turnover or workers not being able to take job offers in the first place.
The issue of childcare was reported to be particularly true in Hoonah, Prince of Wales and Kake.
“The biggest constraint to business growth is worker housing,” says the 2023 Climate Business report.
Nearly 230 businesses took the extra time to write about their expectations and needs for the coming year.
Lack of transportation and the cost of transportation follow as barriers to hiring housing and child care.
Key factors in attracting workers and long-term workforce retention include access to recreation and workers from Alaska.
Alaska-raised workers are more likely to stay in Alaska to work.
The third is culture and art to attract workers.
For added jobs, Alaska Native firms ranked highest, followed by food and beverage businesses.
“We see growth in tourism and transportation as the main drivers of job creation,” the Alaska Native organization wrote in the report.
These are the most recruiting communities.
“Everybody in Honolulu is hiring. Two-thirds of business leaders who responded said they will add jobs this year. Ketchikan, Juneau and Sitka are all adding jobs at high levels,” she said. . “Wrangell, I put them at the top. They don’t have the highest job cuts, but they also say they don’t know just 20% more.”
Only 6% of businesses in the Southeast reported impending layoffs. One sector that reported problems leading to job cuts was the timber industry in Yakut.
Quality of life
Southeast Alaska is known for its high quality of life.
Overall quality of life among business leaders is 7.3 out of 10.
Gustavus, Yakutat and Sitka business leaders rated the region the highest while Kake, Hunah and Ketchikan ranked the lowest.
Those in the energy, construction/architecture/engineering and non-profit sectors rank highest, while those in manufacturing and tourism rank lowest.
Go to raincoastdata.com for the entire survey and to read more quotes from various communities and businesses.
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