he construction industry is responsible for about 9 percent of all Alaska jobs, and construction industry-related activity accounted for $3.4 billion in labor income in 2019, representing 10 percent of the state’s total labor income ($32.7 billion).

The industry has continued to inject billions of dollars into the Alaska economy—even in the face of the devastating effects of the pandemic—as the state perseveres, continuing to build, expand, and upgrade. In 2021, the industry is expected to spend $4.3 billion, split pretty evenly between the private and public sectors, according to AGC of Alaska’s 2021 Construction Spending Forecast.

There are so many exciting projects on the horizon that there was no shortage of ideas when the editorial team was discussing what to cover in this year’s construction special section. What kept coming up over and over was how construction in some of the state’s most hard hit industries has fared over the past year—retail, tourism, and community-based projects, to be specific. We wanted to know if the pandemic put planned projects on pause or if, somehow, construction on a new hotel in Anchorage or trail and visitor center upgrades were still going forward.

What we found is that the industry has persevered. Every person who lives in Alaska knows all too well how hard the visitor industry was hit in 2020, and though recovery from such unbelievable drops in visitor numbers will be as slow-moving as the glaciers left unvisited last year, investment in tourism-related construction continues in 2021 with the projects like the Aloft Hotel in Anchorage and Hilton Home 2 in Wasilla. And I don’t want to give too much away because we’re featuring a story on this subject in April, but suffice to say (for now) that work at the state’s ports, harbors, docks, and related facilities hasn’t come to a standstill either, not even close.

Particularly interesting is what’s going on with construction and retail. Since many of us office-types have been working at home for the past year, we’ve had more than enough time to look around and notice all the little things we’ve been “meaning to get to.” And, with restaurants and bars shut down on and off throughout the year, some of the discretionary money we used to spend dining out is being redirected toward finally getting around to home projects. The home project, DIY trend has translated into a much-needed bump in demand for some retailers.

“The demand has been through the roof: our biggest problem this year in the retail side was that we are completely out of inventory, and John Deere can’t provide it fast enough,” says Craig Taylor Equipment President and CEO Chris Devine in this month’s cover story, “Hardware Hangs In.”

Devine’s sentiment is backed up by numbers: April 2020 broke a record in small tractor sales, the highest volume compact tractor sales John Deere has ever seen in a single month.

Of course, this represents one piece of the much larger, family-size pie, and not every sector of the industry is seeing positive growth, but what is happening industry-wide is a cohesive push to make sure that the industry is seen as what it is: essential.