The Anchorage Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) hosted its annual Economic Development luncheon on Wednesday. The event featured updates from the AEDC board and staff, Mayor LaFrance and Keynote speaker Andrew Busch.
AEDC President and CEO Jenna Wright continued her optimistic tone that she struck during the January forecast lunch. Wright shared an update on the summer job market and consumer and business indices.
The Employment Update - June 2024 is a brief update on the local job gains and losses throughout various industries. In June 2024, Anchorage unemployment increased from 3.6% to 4.2%. This amount of unemployment suggests that Anchorage has far too few workers to fill the open jobs around the city. This makes growth difficult and is often cited by business owners and managers as a barrier to development.
A Real-time Jobs Intelligence report highlights the types of jobs posted and the details of the requirements for these jobs. The report looks at April through June 2024.
The Anchorage Consumer Optimism Index was lower than during the first two quarters in both 2022 and 2023. Both personal finance confidence and future expectations were also low, either at or near historic low.
In contrast, the Business Confidence Index while lower than last year, it was still in the positive range and is the third-highest score in the last decade.
Wright and AEDC board member Walter Featherly spoke about the details of Project Anchorage, the initiative to implement a 3% sales tax dedicated to property tax relief and revenue to fund projects to improve Anchorage. The initiative is currently gathering ideas for projects from residents and attendees were invited to submit their own ideas of ways to make Anchorage a better community. Projects can be submitted through September 14, 2024. Details on the plan are at ProjectAnchorage.com.
Up-to-date AEDC reports are online.
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