Juneau has slightly fewer jobs than in 2012 as state work shrinks and mining grows

Juneau has slightly fewer jobs than it did in 2012, with state government work shrinking and mining growing, economist Joshua Warren writes in the November edition of Alaska Economic Trends, published by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

The department's annual wage files show Juneau averaged 18,098 jobs a month in 2025. That is 229 fewer than in 2012, a drop of about 1%. The department calls its 2025 figures preliminary.

The total barely moved, but the mix changed. State government employment fell from 4,304 jobs in 2012 to 3,308 in 2025. Federal employment dropped from 829 in 2012 to 679. Local government employment rose from 2,162 to 2,622.

Warren writes that the Greens Creek and Kensington mines now provide more than 1,000 jobs, more than triple the roughly 300 they supplied 25 years ago. The wage files count 1,015 mining jobs in 2025.

Pay differs widely by industry. In 2025, mining jobs averaged $11,416 a month, state government jobs $6,834 and all Juneau jobs $5,980, according to the department's wage files.

Leisure and hospitality jobs, the department's category for hotels, restaurants and recreation, rose by 191 from 2006 to 2025 and averaged $2,791 a month in 2025. Warren calls that just 200 jobs in 20 years, even as cruise passengers rose from about 950,000 a year to more than a million by his count.

Warren forecasts that more school closures are likely as the population of children ages 0 to 4 keeps shrinking. That is his forecast, not a district proposal. State figures show Juneau School District K-12 enrollment fell from 4,183 students in 2022-23 to 3,809 in 2025-26. The district merged its two high schools into Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé High School in 2024, and the Floyd Dryden school has closed. The city's current budget projects 3,767 students and $2.13 million less in state foundation funding.

Warren writes that the Coast Guard cutter Storis is to be based in Juneau in 2029. He writes that the Coast Guard has cut its crew estimate from 200 to 120 personnel, with 238 family members. The Coast Guard's June draft environmental review projects up to 638 active-duty personnel and family members by 2029 for the Storis and a second cutter, about 2% of the borough's population. If crew members instead live aboard while their families live elsewhere, the draft says, there would be no net population gain and school enrollment may continue to decline.

Juneau City Manager Katie Koester wrote the Assembly on Nov. 2 that without adequate housing, the Storis will not make Juneau its permanent home, and that the lack of a definitive housing plan jeopardizes the timeline. The Coast Guard has proposed that a developer build 61 housing units in exchange for a guaranteed five-year lease. Koester asked the Assembly to back a housing partnership with the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and the Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority.