Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Are you too old for this job?

The state Department of Labor's Alaska Economic Trends newsletter for November has a cover story about employment in the seafood industry.

It's an easy and interesting seven-page read. Here's a few highlights:

• The fishing and processing sectors combined for 16,297 jobs last year, up almost 12 percent since the bottom of the salmon depression in 2002.

• The industry's youth is on deck with almost half of vessel crewmen under 30 years old last year. Processing workers generally are older, averaging 39 in 2008. Fishing permit holders are the graybeards, averaging 46 years old.

• Alaska's highly seasonal seafood industry has a huge nonresident component, with 27 percent of permit holders 46 percent of crewmen and 74 percent of processing workers living out of state last year.

4 comments:

FishTaxi said...

Yep, I am too old. But I can say I worked the crab/shrimp line in Kodiak when I was 25 and worked on a seiner in my thirties.

Its not surprising most seafood workers are from outside.

I like to say the Alaska seafood industry has the highest educated workforce in the country. College students!

Anonymous said...

Too old to fish?....Huuuuhhhhhh?....
With a salmon forecast of 30.5 for Bristol Bay, who has time to worry about getting old?....Get R' Done!

Anonymous said...

Nope. I'm pushing 50 and still grinding away in SE and Bristol Bay. Stay in shape and you can fish well into your 60's

Anonymous said...

Im 54 and still fishing the Bering Sea winter and summer and iknow crew older than me if your tough you can do it