UAA Graduates: How Many Stay and Work in Alaska?

Abstract

More and more people have been graduating from the University of Alaska Anchorage in the past decade. Do they stay in Alaska? What kinds of jobs do they have? How much do they earn? It turns out that most of them stay in Alaska for at least five years after they graduate, they work throughout the economy, and by five years after they graduate their average earnings double. Around one-quarter do leave within a few years. But Alaska’s population on the whole is transient, and it looks as if UAA graduates are no more likely than other Alaskans to leave the state. And the limited evidence for those who graduated in the most recent years suggests they may be staying on in higher numbers. These are among the findings of an analysis ISER and UAA’s Office of Institutional Research did for university leaders, who wanted to know more about UAA graduates working in Alaska. It’s based on patterns among nearly 9,000 people who got UAA certificates or degrees from 2003 through 2007. We asked researchers at the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development to compare data on graduates with data on employment and residence, in the years since they graduated. The department’s employment data cover only people working for businesses or state and local governments. There is no comparable data on federal workers or self-employed people. So when we describe graduates working in Alaska, the figures don’t include those who work for the federal government or are self-employed.