Anchorage business boosters predict double job growth rate Anchorage group sees health care leading the way.

Anchorage's job-growth rate should double this year, although the growth will remain sluggish for many industries, an Anchorage booster organization said Wednesday.

Overall, the city's employers will have 1,100 more people on their payrolls at year end than they have now, said the Anchorage Economic Development Corp. That's a 0.7 percent growth rate. Last year, payroll jobs grew by about 500.

Economists consider the rate of job growth a good indicator of how much the economy is growing.

The city's health care industry will remain a top performer, the AEDC predicted. The industry has added 4,600 jobs in Anchorage since 2002, including 500 more last year. This year, health care should grow by another 300 jobs, the AEDC said.

The oil industry has been slowly losing jobs since 2008. Stable, high oil prices should provide stability to this industry, and it could grow if Shell can drill for oil in the Beaufort Sea, the AEDC said.

The leisure and hospitality industry is tied to tourism. The industry lost about 100 jobs last year, even with the filming of movies and TV shows in the state. It should recover by adding 200 jobs this year.

Rebounding international air cargo traffic at Anchorage's airport and stronger tourism should help boost the transportation sector by 300 jobs.

Most other industries should be relatively flat this year. But government -- the biggest employer in town -- is forecast to lose 200 jobs.

Separately, the AEDC said its new poll of 198 local businesses and organizations shows them expressing slightly more optimism about the coming year than they did at this time last year.

The poll and economic forecast came at a luncheon, at which Peter Sheahan, author and CEO of ChangeLabs, spoke about how business and communities leaders can find opportunities where others cannot.

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