Anchorageruns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
Air cargo & logistics
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, FedEx, UPS, Alaska Airlines, Lynden, Carlile, Matson, TOTE Maritime
The airport calls itself the second-busiest cargo airport in the world, and the reason is geography: it is within about nine and a half hours' flying of 90% of the industrialised northern hemisphere, so a wide-body between Asia and North America can carry more freight and refuel here than fly non-stop. Cargo, ramp handling, customs and freight forwarding are a genuine white-collar and blue-collar employment base.
Oil, gas & resource development
ConocoPhillips Alaska, Hilcorp, Santos, Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, oilfield services and engineering firms
The fields are on the North Slope and in Cook Inlet; the head offices, engineering and rotational workforce are in Anchorage. The state's revenue and the Permanent Fund both trace back here, which is why an oil price move is front-page local news in a way it is nowhere else in the US.
Health care
Providence Alaska Medical Center, Alaska Regional Hospital, Alaska Native Medical Center, Southcentral Foundation, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
Anchorage is the referral centre for the entire state, so its hospitals carry a caseload out of proportion to the city's size — people fly in from off the road system for care. Health care is one of the largest and steadiest employment sectors here.
Military & federal government
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaskan Command and NORAD's Alaskan region, US Coast Guard, federal land and resource agencies
JBER sits inside the municipal boundary and is one of the region's largest employers. The federal footprint in Alaska is disproportionate — land management, fisheries science, aviation and Arctic defence all run through Anchorage.
Alaska Native corporations
CIRI, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, Bristol Bay Native Corporation, NANA, Chugach Alaska, Afognak, Koniag
The regional and village corporations created by the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act are among the largest private employers and landowners in the state, and most keep their head offices in Anchorage. They operate across construction, government services, energy, tourism and real estate — an ownership structure that exists nowhere else in the country.
Government, education & visitor economy
State of Alaska agencies, Municipality of Anchorage, University of Alaska Anchorage, Alaska Railroad, cruise and tour operators
Anchorage is not the state capital — Juneau is, and you cannot drive there — but most state agencies keep their largest offices here because this is where the people are. Summer tourism is intense and short: the season runs roughly mid-May to mid-September and a lot of the visitor economy simply closes outside it.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.