ABSTRACT
Factors affecting the community power structure were evolving as a result of population in-migration which brought new businesses and professional people to Fairbanks. When oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in 1968, there were 27 private physicians in Fairbanks, representing eight specialities. One of the potentially most significant results of pipeline construction on the Fairbanks medical industry was an increase in the number of persons covered by union and industrial health insurance programs. Local employment problems may be attributed to several factors: as the community expanded, more local jobs were created; more local people sought pipeline jobs than had been anticipated; people who came to Fairbanks did not fill the local employment needs. Unexpected impacts of pipeline construction on the health care industry illustrated, once again, the importance of structural analysis in predicting impacts. In the context of high turnover rates during the pipeline construction period, local people who normally had difficulty finding jobs became more desirable as employees.
