My buddy in Florida had a booming business before Obama. He had 11 employees, now he has 8. He has had to cut employe pay by 20%. He has laid off 3 employees. For the last three years he has been breaking even. Some months he is up in the Black a little, other months he is in the Red. But over the long haul he is just breaking even.
Now for Alaska. Mining, Oil, and Government Jobs, are the life blood of Alaska.
Big Foreign owned mining corps have moved in and are running big mines. Most of the employees are from out of state, they can be hired for less, and controlled better than someone that lives here. They won't readily quite since home is 4,000 miles away and the company furnishes transportation to and from.
The small mining operations are being squeezed out by BLM closing roads, and refusing them access across BLM lands to their claims. More good paying jobs going away.
The Government won't allow new oil wells to be drilled, and the amount of oil in the pipeline is dwindling. So all the high paying oil field jobs went away.
The military closed the smaller remote bases, crushing the economies of rural communities. They combined Ft Richardson Army Post, and Elmendorf AFB, at Anchorage. The Air Force took over base operations. The Army Civilian Employees became Air Force Employees. The Air Force combined the two operations, reducing the numbers by 1/4th to 1/3rd, putting a large number of people out of work. The Air Force moved all but one squadron of air planes out of Eielson AFB, reducing the number of Military there, and in the community. The loss of those people has had a dramatic affect on this community. Now the Air Force is talking about moving the last squadron from Eielson, and mothballing the base. North Pole is nothing but a bed room community for Eielson AFB. North Pole will dry up.
The cost of fuel is killing us. We heat our homes with fuel oil. My last fill up was over $1,400.00 and that was for less than 400 gal. Our electricity is produced by fuel oil, my electric bill for last month was over $600.00. People are moving out of the area. Especially the elderly, and those on fixed incomes. Every week someone at the Senior Center says they are moving to the lower 48. Most are moving in with the kids, where ever they live. The population of Fairbanks and the surrounding area is in a decline. Some homes have been on the market for 18 to 24 months, and have not sold. The only jobs for the kids during the summer are with the cruise lines. Carnival and Princess do not pay good. Hard long hours, lots of stress, and you will be fired in a heart beat, over nothing.
My neighbor (50 yro) was laid off, but the company said he quite, just as they filed for bankruptcy. That made him ineligible for unemployment. He got education assistance from the state and went to college. He graduated the end of December with a Mechanical Engineering degree. He has applied for several positions, and has some good prospects starting in the spring. In the mean time he has found out he is now eligible for unemployment. We don't understand that, but he is taking the money, his last kid just moved out and he now needs to pay the bills. Side note, he was fortunate in that his kids started graduating at the time he was laid off. The oldest girl went to work for a legal office and she did not want to move out, so she paid rent and board. The second girl did the same thing. The boy had already moved out, but he and his roommate had a spat and he moved back in. When the second girl got married and moved out the youngest started working. Now they have all moved out, and he and the wife are alone, with the house payments and electric and heating bills.
My wife is looking for a job in either Washington DC or Virginia. She is a Government Employee. As soon as she can find one she is leaving Alaska. We can no longer afford to live here. If we can sell the house great, if not we will rent it.
