Entry Level Jobs In Alaska
If you want to work in the great state of Alaska, you’ll be happy to know that there are a variety of entry level jobs available. These positions are often available for people just starting out in the workforce or those who have been out of work for a while.
For those looking for an entry level job in Alaska, here are some things to consider:
• Pay: Entry level jobs in Alaska offer competitive wages and benefits. The average annual wage for an entry level position is $27,000.
• Benefits: Most entry level jobs in Alaska offer health insurance and retirement plans. Some companies also offer paid time off, maternity leave and other perks!
• How To Apply: Most companies use online applications, which makes applying easy! You can apply directly through the company website or by submitting your resume via email or postal mail. If you’re having trouble finding a job opening online, try posting your resume on sites like Monster and Indeed!
Entry Level Jobs In Alaska
Alaska (/əˈlæskə/ (listen) ə-LAS-kə; Aleut: Alax̂sxax̂; Inupiaq: Alaasikaq; Alutiiq: Alas’kaaq; Yup’ik: Alaskaq;[4] Tlingit: Anáaski) is a U.S. state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., it borders the Canadian province of British Columbia and the Yukon territory to the east; it also shares a maritime border with the Russian Federation’s Chukotka Autonomous Okrug to the west, just across the Bering Strait. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort seas of the Arctic Ocean, while the Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest.
Alaska is by far the largest U.S. state by area, comprising more total area than the next three largest states (Texas, California, and Montana) combined. It represents the seventh largest subnational division in the world. It is the third-least populous and the most sparsely populated state, but by far the continent’s most populous territory located mostly north of the 60th parallel, with a population of 736,081 as of 2020—more than quadruple the combined populations of Northern Canada and Greenland.[3] Approximately half of Alaska’s residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. The state capital of Juneau is the second-largest city in the United States by area, comprising more territory than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware. The former capital of Alaska, Sitka, is the largest U.S. city by area.
What is now Alaska has been home to various indigenous peoples for thousands of years; it is widely believed that the region served as the entry point for the initial settlement of North America by way of the Bering land bridge. The Russian Empire was the first to actively colonize the area beginning in the 18th century, eventually establishing Russian America, which spanned most of the current state. The expense and difficulty of maintaining this distant possession prompted its sale to the U.S. in 1867 for US$7.2 million (equivalent to $140 million in 2021), or approximately two cents per acre ($4.74/km2). The area went through several administrative changes before becoming organized as a territory on May 11, 1912. It was admitted as the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959.[5]
While it has one of the smallest state economies in the country, Alaska’s per capita income is among the highest, owing to a diversified economy dominated by fishing, natural gas, and oil, all of which it has in abundance. United States armed forces bases and tourism are also a significant part of the economy; more than half the state is federally owned public land, including a multitude of national forests, national parks, and wildlife refuges.
The indigenous population of Alaska is proportionally the highest of any U.S. state, at over 15 percent.[6] Close to two dozen native languages are spoken, and Alaskan Natives exercise considerable influence in local and state politics.
Contents
1 Etymology
2 History
2.1 Pre-colonization
2.2 Colonization
2.3 Alaska as an incorporated U.S. territory
2.4 Statehood
2.5 Good Friday earthquake
2.6 Alaska oil boom
2.7 COVID-19 Pandemic
3 Geography
3.1 Regions
3.1.1 South Central
3.1.2 Southeast
3.1.3 Interior
3.1.4 Southwest
3.1.5 North Slope
3.1.6 Aleutian Islands
3.2 Land ownership
3.3 Alaska Heritage Resources Survey
3.4 Cities, towns and boroughs
3.4.1 Cities and census-designated places (by population)
3.5 Climate
4 Demographics
4.1 Race and ethnicity
4.2 Languages
4.3 Religion
5 Economy
5.1 Energy
5.1.1 Permanent Fund
5.2 Cost of living
5.3 Agriculture and fishing
6 Culture
6.1 Music
6.2 Alaska in film and on television
6.3 Sports
7 Public health and public safety
8 Education
9 Transportation
9.1 Roads
9.2 Rail
9.3 Marine transport
9.4 Air transport
9.5 Other transport
9.6 Data transport
10 Law and government
10.1 State government
10.2 State politics
10.3 Voter registration
10.4 Taxes
10.5 Federal politics
10.6 Elections
11 See also
12 Notes
13 References
14 External links
14.1 U.S. federal government
14.2 Alaska state government
Etymology
The name “Alaska” (Russian: Аля́ска, tr. Alyáska) was introduced in the Russian colonial period when it was used to refer to the Alaska Peninsula. It was derived from an Aleut-language idiom, “alaxsxaq”, meaning “the mainland” or, more literally, “the object towards which the action of the sea is directed”.[7][8][9] It is also known as “Alyeska”, the “great land”, an Aleut word derived from the same root.
History
Main articles: Prehistory of Alaska and History of Alaska
Pre-colonization
Main article: Alaska Natives
A modern Alutiiq dancer in traditional festival garb
Numerous indigenous peoples occupied Alaska for thousands of years before the arrival of European peoples to the area. Linguistic and DNA studies done here have provided evidence for the settlement of North America by way of the Bering land bridge.[10] At the Upward Sun River site in the Tanana Valley in Alaska, remains of a six-week-old infant were found. The baby’s DNA showed that she belonged to a population that was genetically separate from other native groups present elsewhere in the New World at the end of the Pleistocene. Ben Potter, the University of Alaska Fairbanks archaeologist who unearthed the remains at the Upward Sun River site in 2013, named this new group Ancient Beringians.[11]
The Tlingit people developed a society with a matrilineal kinship system of property inheritance and descent in what is today Southeast Alaska, along with parts of British Columbia and the Yukon. Also in Southeast were the Haida, now well known for their unique arts. The Tsimshian people came to Alaska from British Columbia in 1887, when President Grover Cleveland, and later the U.S. Congress, granted them permission to settle on Annette Island and found the town of Metlakatla. All three of these peoples, as well as other indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, experienced smallpox outbreaks from the late 18th through the mid-19th century, with the most devastating epidemics occurring in the 1830s and 1860s, resulting in high fatalities and social disruption.[12]
The Aleutian Islands are still home to the Aleut people’s seafaring society, although they were the first Native Alaskans to be exploited by the Russians. Western and Southwestern Alaska are home to the Yup’ik, while their cousins the Alutiiq ~ Sugpiaq live in what is now Southcentral Alaska. The Gwich’in people of the northern Interior region are Athabaskan and primarily known today for their dependence on the caribou within the much-contested Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The North Slope and Little Diomede Island are occupied by the widespread Inupiat people.
Colonization
Main articles: Russian America, Department of Alaska, District of Alaska, Fairbanks Gold Rush, Kobuk River Stampede, and Nome Gold Rush
The Russian settlement of St. Paul’s Harbor (present-day Kodiak town), Kodiak Island, 1814
Miners and prospectors climb the Chilkoot Trail during the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush
Some researchers believe the first Russian settlement in Alaska was established in the 17th century.[13] According to this hypothesis, in 1648 several koches of Semyon Dezhnyov’s expedition came ashore in Alaska by storm and founded this settlement. This hypothesis is based on the testimony of Chukchi geographer Nikolai Daurkin, who had visited Alaska in 1764–1765 and who had reported on a village on the Kheuveren River, populated by “bearded men” who “pray to the icons”. Some modern researchers associate Kheuveren with Koyuk River.[14]
The first European vessel to reach Alaska is generally held to be the St. Gabriel under the authority of the surveyor M. S. Gvozdev and assistant navigator I. Fyodorov on August 21, 1732, during an expedition of Siberian Cossack A. F. Shestakov and Russian explorer Dmitry Pavlutsky (1729–1735).[15] Another European contact with Alaska occurred in 1741, when Vitus Bering led an expedition for the Russian Navy aboard the St. Peter. After his crew returned to Russia with sea otter pelts judged to be the finest fur in the world, small associations of fur traders began to sail from the shores of Siberia toward the Aleutian Islands. The first permanent European settlement was founded in 1784.
Between 1774 and 1800, Spain sent several expeditions to Alaska to assert its claim over the Pacific Northwest. In 1789, a Spanish settlement and fort were built in Nootka Sound. These expeditions gave names to places such as Valdez, Bucareli Sound, and Cordova. Later, the Russian-American Company carried out an expanded colonization program during the early-to-mid-19th century. Sitka, renamed New Archangel from 1804 to 1867, on Baranof Island in the Alexander Archipelago in what is now Southeast Alaska, became the capital of Russian America. It remained the capital after the colony was transferred to the United States. The Russians never fully colonized Alaska, and the colony was never very profitable. Evidence of Russian settlement in names and churches survive throughout southeastern Alaska.
William H. Seward, the 24th United States Secretary of State, negotiated the Alaska Purchase (also known as Seward’s Folly) with the Russians in 1867 for $7.2 million. Russia’s contemporary ruler Tsar Alexander II, the Emperor of the Russian Empire, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland, also planned the sale;[16] the purchase was made on March 30, 1867. Six months later the commissioners arrived in Sitka and the formal transfer was arranged; the formal flag-raising took place at Fort Sitka on October 18, 1867. In the ceremony 250 uniformed U.S. soldiers marched to the governor’s house at “Castle Hill”, where the Russian troops lowered the Russian flag and the U.S. flag was raised. This event is celebrated as Alaska Day, a legal holiday on October 18.
Alaska was loosely governed by the military initially, and was administered as a district starting in 1884, with a governor appointed by the United States president. A federal district court was headquartered in Sitka. For most of Alaska’s first decade under the United States flag, Sitka was the only community inhabited by American settlers. They organized a “provisional city government”, which was Alaska’s first municipal government, but not in a legal sense.[17] Legislation allowing Alaskan communities to legally incorporate as cities did not come about until 1900, and home rule for cities was extremely limited or unavailable until statehood took effect in 1959.
Alaska as an incorporated U.S. territory
Main articles: Organic act § List of organic acts, and Territory of Alaska
Starting in the 1890s and stretching in some places to the early 1910s, gold rushes in Alaska and the nearby Yukon Territory brought thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska. Alaska was officially incorporated as an organized territory in 1912. Alaska’s capital, which had been in Sitka until 1906, was moved north to Juneau. Construction of the Alaska Governor’s Mansion began that same year. European immigrants from Norway and Sweden also settled in southeast Alaska, where they entered the fishing and logging industries.
U.S. troops navigate snow and ice during the Battle of Attu in May 1943
During World War II, the Aleutian Islands Campaign focused on Attu, Agattu and Kiska, all which were occupied by the Empire of Japan.[18] During the Japanese occupation, a white American civilian and two United States Navy personnel were killed at Attu and Kiska respectively, and nearly a total of 50 Aleut civilians and eight sailors were interned in Japan. About half of the Aleuts died during the period of internment.[19] Unalaska/Dutch Harbor and Adak became significant bases for the United States Army, United States Army Air Forces and United States Navy. The United States Lend-Lease program involved flying American warplanes through Canada to Fairbanks and then Nome; Soviet pilots took possession of these aircraft, ferrying them to fight the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The construction of military bases contributed to the population growth of some Alaskan cities.
Statehood
See also: Alaska Statehood Act, Admission to the Union, and List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union
Bob Bartlett & Ernest Gruening, Alaska’s inaugural U.S. Senators, hold the 49 star U.S. Flag after the admission of Alaska as the 49th state.
Statehood for Alaska was an important cause of James Wickersham early in his tenure as a congressional delegate. Decades later, the statehood movement gained its first real momentum following a territorial referendum in 1946. The Alaska Statehood Committee and Alaska’s Constitutional Convention would soon follow. Statehood supporters also found themselves fighting major battles against political foes, mostly in the U.S. Congress but also within Alaska. Statehood was approved by the U.S. Congress on July 7, 1958; Alaska was officially proclaimed a state on January 3, 1959.
Good Friday earthquake
Main article: 1964 Alaska earthquake
On March 27, 1964, the massive Good Friday earthquake killed 133 people and destroyed several villages and portions of large coastal communities, mainly by the resultant tsunamis and landslides. It was the second-most-powerful earthquake in recorded history, with a moment magnitude of 9.2 (more than a thousand times as powerful as the 1989 San Francisco earthquake).[20] The time of day (5:36 pm), time of year (spring) and location of the epicenter were all cited as factors in potentially sparing thousands of lives, particularly in Anchorage.
Lasting four minutes and thirty-eight seconds, the magnitude 9.2 megathrust earthquake remains the most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history, and the second most powerful earthquake recorded in world history. Six hundred miles (970 km) of fault ruptured at once and moved up to 60 ft (18 m), releasing about 500 years of stress buildup. Soil liquefaction, fissures, landslides, and other ground failures caused major structural damage in several communities and much damage to property. Anchorage sustained great destruction or damage to many inadequately earthquake-engineered houses, buildings, and infrastructure (paved streets, sidewalks, water and sewer mains, electrical systems, and other man-made equipment), particularly in the several landslide zones along Knik Arm. Two hundred miles (320 km) southwest, some areas near Kodiak were permanently raised by 30 feet (9 m). Southeast of Anchorage, areas around the head of Turnagain Arm near Girdwood and Portage dropped as much as 8 feet (2.4 m), requiring reconstruction and fill to raise the Seward Highway above the new high tide mark.
In Prince William Sound, Port Valdez suffered a massive underwater landslide, resulting in the deaths of 32 people between the collapse of the Valdez city harbor and docks, and inside the ship that was docked there at the time. Nearby, a 27-foot (8.2 m) tsunami destroyed the village of Chenega, killing 23 of the 68 people who lived there; survivors out-ran the wave, climbing to high ground. Post-quake tsunamis severely affected Whittier, Seward, Kodiak, and other Alaskan communities, as well as people and property in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California.[21] Tsunamis also caused damage in Hawaii and Japan. Evidence of motion directly related to the earthquake was also reported from Florida and Texas.
Alaska oil boom
The 1968 discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay and the 1977 completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System led to an oil boom. Royalty revenues from oil have funded large state budgets from 1980 onward.
That same year, not coincidentally, Alaska repealed its state income tax.[citation needed]
In 1989, the Exxon Valdez hit a reef in the Prince William Sound, spilling more than 11 million U.S. gallons (42 megaliters) of crude oil over 1,100 miles (1,800 km) of coastline. Today, the battle between philosophies of development and conservation is seen in the contentious debate over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the proposed Pebble Mine.
COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the U.S. state of Alaska on March 12, 2020.[22]
On March 11, Governor Mike Dunleavy’s office declared a state of emergency to ensure all entities have the necessary response resources.[23] The next day, the first case, a foreign national in Anchorage, was announced to the public.[24]
Ketchikan, one of the places affected by COVID-19 during the 2020 outbreak in Alaska
On March 21, 2020, Ketchikan, a small, coastal town of approximately 8,000 residents located in Southeast Alaska was determined to have a cluster of six COVID-19 cases. The town sheltered in place for the following 14 days.[25] On March 24, 2020, three more cases of COVID-19 were found in Ketchikan, bringing the total there to nine.[26] The next day, the total cases there reached 11.[27] On April 1, 2020, the number of positive cases of COVID-19 in Ketchikan rose to 14.[28]
Geography
Main article: Geography of Alaska
Located at the northwest corner of North America, Alaska is the northernmost and westernmost state in the United States, but also has the most easterly longitude in the United States because the Aleutian Islands extend into the Eastern Hemisphere.[29] Alaska is the only non-contiguous U.S. state on continental North America; about 500 miles (800 km) of British Columbia (Canada) separates Alaska from Washington. It is technically part of the continental U.S., but is sometimes not included in colloquial use; Alaska is not part of the contiguous U.S., often called “the Lower 48”. The capital city, Juneau, is situated on the mainland of the North American continent but is not connected by road to the rest of the North American highway system.
The state is bordered by Canada’s Yukon and British Columbia to the east (making it the only state to border a Canadian territory); the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south and southwest; the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and Chukchi Sea to the west; and the Arctic Ocean to the north. Alaska’s territorial waters touch Russia’s territorial waters in the Bering Strait, as the Russian Big Diomede Island and Alaskan Little Diomede Island are only 3 miles (4.8 km) apart. Alaska has a longer coastline than all the other U.S. states combined.[30]
Alaska’s size compared with the 48 contiguous states (Albers equal-area conic projection)
At 663,268 square miles (1,717,856 km2) in area, Alaska is by far the largest state in the United States, and is more than twice the size of the second-largest U.S. state, Texas. Alaska is the seventh largest subnational division in the world, and if it was an independent nation would be the 16th largest country in the world, as it is larger than Iran.
With its myriad islands, Alaska has nearly 34,000 miles (55,000 km) of tidal shoreline. The Aleutian Islands chain extends west from the southern tip of the Alaska Peninsula. Many active volcanoes are found in the Aleutians and in coastal regions. Unimak Island, for example, is home to Mount Shishaldin, which is an occasionally smoldering volcano that rises to 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above the North Pacific. The chain of volcanoes extends to Mount Spurr, west of Anchorage on the mainland. Geologists have identified Alaska as part of Wrangellia, a large region consisting of multiple states and Canadian provinces in the Pacific Northwest, which is actively undergoing continent building.
One of the world’s largest tides occurs in Turnagain Arm, just south of Anchorage, where tidal differences can be more than 35 feet (10.7 m).[31]
Alaska has more than three million lakes.[32] Marshlands and wetland permafrost cover 188,320 square miles (487,700 km2) (mostly in northern, western and southwest flatlands). Glacier ice covers about 28,957 square miles (75,000 km2) of Alaska.[33] The Bering Glacier is the largest glacier in North America, covering 2,008 square miles (5,200 km2) alone.[34]
