The just issued, annual Alaska Department of Labor report on state fisheries says the number of people commercially harvesting fish has gone down over the past five years. In 2005, the monthly employment average was about 7,500 people. Last year, it was under 7,000.
Rob Kreiger, a department economist, point outs, though, the money Alaska’s fisheries bring in has gone in the past few years. The total dockside value of the state’s fisheries last year was $1.6 billion.
The Aleutian and Pribilof Island region was the most productive, contributing over $470 million to that amount.
The next highest earner was Southcentral, bringing in $265 million.
Bristol Bay has shown the most growth. Earnings there rose from about $100 million in 2005 to $170 million in 2010.
The report did not contain information on how many fish processing jobs exist in Alaska.
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