Sitka City and Borough, Alaska

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 842 workers (25.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $89,789. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 859 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $735M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Construction averages $114,401 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $39,558, a 2.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation concentrates at 243.41x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 8 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 36.1% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.4x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Vacancy level: 17.3% of housing units are vacant, below the Alaska rate of 17.6%, and up from 16% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 52.1% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 7.8% of the vacant stock, or 1.4% of all housing units against the 17.3% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $70,230 can pay without cost burden (~$1,756/mo), and 39.6% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 22.7% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 70.2% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Sitka City and Borough per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Sitka City and Borough shows strong potential for scenic and sightseeing transportation attraction, with a 243.41x concentration and 199 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.7% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans scenic and sightseeing transportation, food manufacturing, and construction of buildings, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 36.1% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.