Alaska fishing jobs grew in 2025 after five straight years of losses

Alaska's seafood harvesting jobs, held by the skippers and crews who catch the fish, grew 4% in 2025, the first increase after five straight years of losses, according to the November issue of Alaska Economic Trends, released Monday by the state labor department.

The gain averaged 216 jobs. That's a small fraction of the 2,300 jobs lost since 2019, but the largest single-year gain in more than a decade, wrote department economist Joshua Warren.

Salmon led the way. Salmon accounts for more than half of harvesting jobs, and it grew 7%, about 190 jobs, after losing around 1,500 from 2019 to 2024. Alaska had a good salmon year, the report says, partly because of a surge in odd-year pink salmon.

Halibut fishing lost 60 jobs, almost 7%. The Aleutians and Pribilof Islands were the only region to lose fishing jobs.

Warren traced the earlier losses mostly to shortened seasons and closures in major fisheries such as Bering Sea crab, some of which reopened in 2025.

Even at the July peak, Alaska had about 17,400 harvesting jobs, well below the mid-2010s peaks of around 24,000.

Because harvesters are self-employed, the department estimates jobs from landings, the first sale of a catch.

The losses came during a broader downturn. A NOAA Fisheries economic snapshot found the Alaska seafood industry lost $1.8 billion from 2022 to 2023.