Unalaska, AK – Community members from around the Aleutians, the Pribilofs, and the Alaska Peninsula met Tuesday via teleconference to discuss creating jobs in our communities. The Community Jobs Forum was organized by the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association Inc. to gather information on local economic conditions to submit to the White House. The Obama Administration is collecting the information in an effort to create an effective plan for job creation through out the country.

Community representatives through out the region echoed the same concerns. Most of the local jobs are at processing plants, which tend not to hire local people. "There's some local hire here in the village, but we don't work at Trident, at the seafood processor," Akutan tribal administrator Jacob Stepetin said. "Most of the locals just work for the community, for the city. They hire most of everybody. And the tribe hardly hires anybody because we rely on federal funds, whish are hard to come by nowadays."

Kathy Dirks, from Unalaska, said that while there are more job opportunities in this community, we have similar problems. "It's pretty sad where we have the canneries and they don't hire our local people. They should. It would give our local people jobs, instead of hiring outside of Alaska."

Other participants identified the need for more local skills training. Many communities lack plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and others with specific skill sets. They said jobs could be created for locals if they could attend a regional trade school.

Community members are also having problems making enough money. Because some fishing quotas were reduced, people around the region are getting fewer hours of work both in the processing sector and the service industries. says everyone is struggling.

"I think pretty much everyone is struggling in some way," said Brenda Wilson from King Cove. "You put in all the factors that we need to survive, the cost of electricity, the cost of fuel, the freight costs. Everything is going up. Everything has gone up. I personally have redone my budget seven times this past year. Seven times."

Some also advocated for more wind energy in villages to make life more affordable.

Dirks, the local forum outreach person, said the information from this forum will be submitted to the White House, but she hopes that more people from Unalaska, including industry representatives, city representatives, and others, will come together to continue the discussion locally. Turn out for the discussion was low.