In 2018, private sector employment in Haines was at its highest level in a decade; average monthly wages remained below state averages, education and health services provided the most year-round jobs; and sales tax revenues rose by 10 percent from the prior year.

That’s all according to the economic indicators report data gathered by Haines Economic Development Corporation director Margaret Friedenauer and released last week.

The report is intended to provide a snapshot of the economy, as opposed to a holistic picture of Haines presented in McDowell Group’s 2018 baseline data report that gave Haines its first ever data-driven look at its economy, Friedenauer said.

Private sector employment was up 17 percent from 2017, providing an average yearly wage of $40,572.

Last year, construction accounted for the most wages in Haines at $10.8 million and 9 percent of the workforce. Leisure and hospitality accounted for $5.2 million in earnings, but with almost a quarter of the total jobs in Haines, proving that “the sectors with the highest earnings do not necessarily correlate to the sectors with the highest number of employees,” the report says.

Unemployment didn’t change from 2017, but was up from 2016. Haines’ 9.5 percent unemployment rate is higher than the state and country, the report says, in part because of the prevalence of seasonal work. Monthly unemployment was at a low of 5.5 percent in August and a high of 16.1 percent in January.

Haines’ full-time working women earn 59 percent of their male counterpart’s salary, credited to different job types. “Male-dominated industries in Alaska tend to be in resource extraction, construction and building trades which have higher wages than female-dominated occupations in lower wage service and care-providing sectors,” it said.

As for demographics, Haines remains the oldest community in Alaska with a median age of 48.6, though the number of 0-19 year olds has been gradually increasing since 2012. Statistics show that Haines is a decade older than other areas of Southeast.

Sales tax receipts have steadily increased since 2016, noted as a possible indicator in consumer confidence in their economic security. The receipts also show that July and August are more than three times as profitable as January and February in recent years.

To read the full report, visit hainesedc.org.