Friends Helping Friends
June 1998
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| | Ketchikan Career Transition Center Friends Helping Friends June 1998 |
| Headlines | Features |
Peer Counselor On The Move
Gary Benner will be moving to Bellingham Washington where he has accepted a job with Georgia Pacific Inc. His last day at the Center will be on May 31, 1998. Gary has worked at Ketchikan Pulp Company since 1976. In March of 1997 Gary accepted a position as Peer Counselor for the Ketchikan Career Transition Center. Since working at the Center it has been Gary's number one goal to be an advocate for his friends and co-workers. Gary has been instrumental in helping his friends and co-workers realize their dreams and accomplish their goals. Gary's abilities and skills, along with his compassion, and sense of humor will be sorely missed.
ON BEHALF OF THE ENTIRE STAFF WE WISH YOU THE VERY BEST!
Business Workshops in June There will be a series of four small business workshops presented at the Ketchikan Career Transition Center (KCTC), in June. These presentations are designed with the entrepreneur in mind.
"Starting Your Business" -
Thursday, June 4th, 1:00 p.m. This informative workshop is designed to assist the person who is either thinking about starting a business, or has started a business, in getting organized, finding information about financing, licenses, inventory control, financial controls, and other general information that the aspiring business person will find useful.
"Marketing & Sales for Small Business" -
Thursday, June 11th, 1:00 p.m. No matter how superior your product or service may be, no matter how hard you work, you must have a plan to deliver your product or service to your customer. This workshop can help get you off to a good start.
"Records and Bookkeeping for Small Business" -
Thursday, June 18th, 1:00 p.m. If your business is going to survive, grow, and prosper, you must be in control of your records and finances. This workshop is a must for prospective or active business persons who have questions about financial and records maintenance for their business.
"Business Plan Preparation" -
Thursday, June 25th, 1:00 p.m. We plan parties, we plan vacations, and we even plan fishing trips. Your business is or will be one of the most important activities of your life. Why not plan it ??? Not surprisingly, businesses that prepare a business plan experience 25% greater sales, 83% greater profits, and hire 24% more employees than businesses who did not prepare a business plan. Prepare yourself to succeed.
These workshops are presented by David Sharman, CBC, as a service of the Juneau Economic Development Council, in cooperation with your Ketchikan Career Transition Center, and funded through the Department of Community and Regional Affairs. The workshops are fast paced, informative, and entertaining. There will be time allocated in each workshop to discuss your business and answer questions.
KPC, JTPA and Title II eligible persons may attend the workshops at no charge. Individual business counseling is also available at no charge to those eligible persons. Call David Sharman at 247-7526 for an appointment or workshop information.
For further information or to make an appointment for business assistance services, contact David Sharman at KCTC 247-7526. Click here to send email. New Chance Update New Chance will start up again in the fall. If you are interested in signing up for the September class, see Wendy Ness or Peri Shapanski at the Transition Center.
If you are a dislocated worker and undecided about your future employment/education plans, the New Chance Center can help you! Classes offered are Academic Skills, Career Explorations, and Computers for beginners.
Come see our friendly staff and great facilities at the convenient Plaza Port West second floor location next to the Bon Marché for Kids, or call us at (907)225-5230 or fax (907)225-5340.
Let New Chance be the key to your future! KCTC Grievance Policy All non-program (TAA, JTPA) grievances will be resolved through the Grievance procedure established by the Transition Center Committee. If you have an issue that needs resolution, please fill out the information requested on the form and place the form in a sealed envelope.
Submit the sealed envelope to the receptionist. The receptionist will put this sealed envelope in the Committee's mail box. A Committee member will check the mail box daily and if an issue or issues have been submitted to be grieved then the Committee member in receipt will notify the other voting members of the Committee of the grievance.
You will receive a letter within a week letting you know the Committee is in receipt of your grievance. The three Committee members you select to hear your grievance will meet as soon as possible to do so. You will be notified, by mail, as soon as the Committee makes a decision in regard to your grievance.
The forms and envelopes can be pick-up at the front desk from the receptionist. Keep in mind that the center is here for you, the dislocated worker, and it is your job to make sure you receive the services you deserve. Let New Chance be the window to your future! Southeast Forecast - Growth in 1999 Each year analysts with the Alaska Department of Labor prepare a two-year forecast of employment by industry for Alaska, Anchorage, Fairbanks and Southeast Alaska. This article summarizes the outlook for Southeast. For more information see the May issue of Alaska Economic Trends. Ask for a copy at KCTC.
Ketchikan's Unemployment Rate
*Pulp mill closed. The immediate impacts on Southeast's timber industry are many. Several companies report they have cut harvest projections for this year. Ketchikan Pulp Company announced the indefinite shut down of its sawmill in Metlakatla. It also temporarily stopped operations at its Ketchikan sawmill to refocus on domestic markets.
The recent turmoil throws a pall over what had promised to be a period of some recovery in the timber industry. A new sawmill opened in Ketchikan earlier this year and a veneer plant could be operating at the pulp mill site next year. Silver Bay plans to open a sawmill in Wrangell. Smaller, specialty processors are also locating in the region. However, if this forecast holds, Southeast's timber industry employment will fall to its lowest level since at least 1975, almost one-third of its 1990 level.
The number of jobs in construction is also forecast to fall, but should still beat the industry's average employment for the 1990s. Low gold prices have stalled the start of construction on Coeur Alaska's Kensington mine, which, with all permits now in place, might have begun this summer. The company will continue exploring for new reserves and looking for cost reductions. Work could begin in 1999, but this forecast assumes that it does not.
The services industry has assumed a larger role in Southeast's economy and should add the largest number of jobs over the next two years. Health care growth should continue but at a slower pace than in recent years. Other areas of services are boosted by more visitor traffic. Hotels, lodges, amusement and recreation services particularly benefit. Tourism also provides jobs in retail trade, transportation and other industries.
The public sector will be the region's second largest job loser. Federal government employment will fall with reductions at the Forest Service. State cuts are driven by budget concerns.
Southeast Suffers from Asian Crisis
One factor affecting the employment forecast for southeast Alaska is the economic crisis in southeast Asia. The crisis appeared to come on suddenly last summer with rapid currency devaluations in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea. However, the underlying causes, which also affect other countries in the region, had been developing for some time. Though causes varied by country, in general they include financial systems that encouraged loans to certain companies or industries without a proper accounting of risk or procedures for recognizing and dealing with companies which ran into trouble.
In Japan, for instance, many loans were backed by property valued when the market was at unsustainably high levels. When the property bubble burst earlier in the 1990s, many loans were no longer adequately secured and banks did not have enough capital reserves to cover the losses. A combination of political, social and financial traditions prevented the affected companies and banks from adapting and responding quickly to minimize the damage.
Over time, the problems grew. Some analysts fear that recently proposed reforms are too little, too late, to keep Japan from falling into recession. While the economies of many southeast Asian countries are suffering, recovery in Japan, the region's largest economy (bar China) appears key to the region's revival.
The downturn influences Asian markets for Alaska goods in several ways. A stronger dollar relative to devalued Asian currencies makes Alaska exports more expensive and importing from other Asian countries more attractive. Companies cannot borrow money to purchase materials, and consumer demand for non-essentials has fallen.
These impacts have hit Alaskan industries, such as timber and fishing, hard. Japan has, traditionally, taken by far the largest share of Alaska's seafood and timber exports. In 1996, Japan bought almost 84 percent of Alaska's fish exports (by value) and 68 percent of the state's timber exports. In total, Asian countries purchased about 95 percent of Alaska's fish and timber exports.
In timber, the economic downturn in Japan has slashed housing starts, reducing demand for Alaska's logs. At the same time, wood products produced in southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia, and usually consumed there, are being exported at prices made cheap by the devaluation of these countries' currencies. This development, combined with increased wood production in non-Asian countries, has pushed prices down worldwide. Some analysts suggest that increased supply from Russia and other lower cost producers may displace Alaska timber for the foreseeable future. Alaska's timber exports to Asia may not recover even when Japan's economy rebounds.
The Asian crisis' impact on Alaska's fishing industry is also severe. Japan is Alaska's key trading partner for many seafood products. As with timber, demand for some types of seafood products is down and cheaper, alternative sources are available. Prices for herring, pollock, and the state's mainstay, salmon, have dropped. Although most of southeast Alaska's pink salmon is sold to domestic markets, its value is likely to be impacted as it competes with the increased supply of other species. Also, like timber, lower cost alternatives are affecting the long-term outlook for Alaska's fishing industry.
Both the timber and fishing industries were already struggling with increased competition and structural changes within the industries and their markets. The collapse of Asian markets makes their situation even more difficult.
Unemployment Rate Update
In March 1998, Ketchikan's unemployment rate was 8.8%. This rate was higher than the statewide rate of 7.0%, but just under the Southeast region's rate of 8.9%. Ketchikan's March rate showed significant improvement from February's rate of 11.3%. The drop reflected a normal decline as businesses began gearing up for the summer season.
Unemployment in Ketchikan should continue to fall as the busy summer season nears. Last summer, some of the Borough's employers reported a shortage of workers. They may well face this problem again this year. Alaska's labor market is tight. Through the first quarter of 1998, statewide unemployment ran about two and a half percentage points below year-ago levels. Alaska's March unemployment rate was the lowest March rate since at least 1978. Two factors are driving the state's unemployment lower: a strong national economy, which means fewer jobseekers coming to Alaska, and stronger job growth in Alaska.
Ketchikan's March unemployment rate of 8.8% was much lower than last year's March rate of 10.4%. Although this over-the-year change might indicate Ketchikan's economy has rebounded from the pulp mill closure, other indicators are not as positive. The number of weeks of unemployment insurance paid rose substantially this March over last, while job and population estimates are down.
Want to learn more? Contact Kristen Tromble, Southeast Economist, Research and Analysis Section, Alaska Department of Labor, at (907) 465-6037. Click here to e-mail her. Or check out Alaska Economic Trends online. Who ever said you can't go back to school later in life for retraining and be successful? Dan Slanaker did just that. When the mill closed he had been a single trade pipefitter for a long time. The world of pipefitting has changed and to be marketable you have to weld. The only way to do that was to go back to school and learn.
That is just what Dan did. He has finished the welding course at Hobart welding school in Ohio with 3.1 GPA. I would just like to say one thing, "WAY TO GO DAN!!!" It is not a little thing to move from the town you have lived in for more then 20 years, go back to school in a new part of the country where you don't know one single person, and do well. Bravo Dan!
All of us at the Ketchikan Career Transition Center would like to extend warm wishes for successful steps in your career decisions.
Bill Hamilton Allen Rathbun Richard Schrader Arnel Laguidao Robert Meck James VanWinkle James Sangster Keith McGinness William Staples David Cooper Jeremy Cooper Submitted by Peri Shapansky,
Community Development Specialist I KCTC Management Committee Mission Statement
The committee is committed to provide programs, guidance, and oversight to KCTC in a way that supports and identifies:
The Committee will serve as a liaison between workers and local, state, and federal entities in a way that will provide outreach and advocacy on behalf of affected workers and families directed toward achieving self sufficiency.
Committee members are: Gary Benton, IUOE; Paul
Lamm, AWPPW; Vera Plumb, IBEW; Lauri Zadina, KPC non-union workers. If you have any questions please
The 6th session of New Chance graduated on Friday, May 15th, 1998. The students worked through the six-week class by increasing their academic skill, writing great game plans, and grasping computer concepts.
Source: Alaska Department of Labor
Start date:1/26/98 - End date: 3/13/98
Training: Truck Driver Training - Place: UAS Ketchikan, AK
Start date: 3/14/98 - End date: 3/30/98
Training: Hazwoper Certification - Place: UAS Career Center, Ketchikan, AK
Start date: 1/5/98
Training: Instrumentation - Place: Perry Institute, Yakima, WA
Start date: 1/5/98
Training: Electrician - Place: Bellingham Technical College, Bellingham, WA
Start date: 2/23/98 - End date: 4/28/98
Training: Heavy Equipment/HAZMAT Certificate/CDL -
Place: West Coast Training Milwaukee, OR
Start date: 2/15/98 - End date: 5/15/98
Training: Pressman - Place: Local Paper Ketchikan, AK
Start Date: 1/5/98
Training: Instrumentation - Place: Perry Institute, Yakima WA
Start date: 2/9/98
Training: Diesel Technician - Place: UTI Phoenix, AZ
Start date: 3/16/98 - End date: 5/5/98
Training: Sierra Horse shoeing - Place: Bishop, CA
Start date: 6/15/98
Training: Electronic Engineer Technology - Place: ITT Technical Institute, Henderson NV
End date: 6/10/98
Training: Marine Mechanic - Place: Clover Park Tech, Lakewood, WA
End date: 6/15/98
Training: Welding - Place: Hobart Institute, Troy Ohio
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Last modified August 20, 1998.
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