Alaska wages dropped in third quarter

Alaska wages declined 3.6 percent in the third quarter of 2017, according to state Department of Labor and Workforce Development data released Feb 15. Employers paid $4.5 billion in wages during the quarter. The decline is an effect of the recession. Nearly 90 percent of the wage loss was in three regions: Anchorage, the Fairbanks North Star Borough and the North Slope Borough. This last was mainly in oil wages paid to oil workers residing out of state but working in the oil elds and who count as population in the borough.