After working at the lab for 17 years, four as the lab's director, Love, 62, and other state employees' jobs ended June 30, the last day of the 2003 fiscal year.

For the next few months, Love will hold a temporary position with the Department of Environmental Conservation until he finds work elsewhere or retires.

According to the state Office of Management and Budget, 370 state positions, 213 of which were vacant, have been eliminated this year. Sixty-nine of the deleted positions were due to departmental consolidations and might or might not have been filled.

Forty-one full-time, part-time and nonpermanent state jobs were cut in Anchorage, 31 in Juneau, three in Fairbanks and 13 in other parts of the state, said state Budget Director Cheryl Frasca. She noted that the numbers do not reflect personnel cuts within the court system or the University of Alaska.

In addition to the year-round state jobs lost in Juneau, the state correspondence program Alyeska Central School lost 18 seasonal employees with the closure of its summer program this year. The staff of 38 during the regular school year has lost another 10 employees who have chosen retirement or found jobs elsewhere.

Outgoing lab director Love's wife Lesley, 62, was one of the summer school teachers laid off.

"If I was 40, I would have felt a little more panicked than I am now," Alan Love said, noting that he could enter into retirement or semi-retirement if he is unable to find new job.

"Getting old isn't all bad," he joked.

The primary role of the state chemistry lab was certifying other private chemistry labs throughout the state so that they meet federal standards for testing public drinking water and marine water, Love said. The lab also developed methods for analyzing oil and chemical spills.

The state instead will contract work out to other private labs, for a savings of about $334,000, according to the Murkowski administration. The lab now will be used as a classroom for University of Alaska Southeast chemistry courses.

Love acknowledged operating the chemistry lab was expensive for the state, but noted that method development for tasks such as analyzing oil spills could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars if contracted to the private sector.

He said it will be difficult to find another job with the state as a chemist and anticipates he will have to move to Anchorage or the Lower 48 to find comparable work.

Love is one of 10 chemists at the lab who retired, were laid off or found other state jobs.

Jim Gendron, 54, has worked at the state chemistry lab in Juneau since September 2001 as a water quality analyst.

"I am hoping to find a position," Gendron said. "But it's going to be difficult to find a job as a chemist. I've been applying and interviewing with the state and intend to continue doing that."

Gendron said he is not concerned so much about losing the job as he is about the loss of service the state lab provides.

"The state lab was highly proficient at documenting results so they could be used in legal proceedings," he said.

Such documentation is important when legal battles arise regarding oil and chemical dumpings, Gendron said.

Gendron is a member of the Alaska State Employees Association, the state's largest public employee union, representing between 7,500 and 8,000 workers.

Jim Duncan, business manager for ASEA, said he expected a greater number of layoffs but is more concerned about cuts slated for next year's budget.

Following the end of this year's legislative session, Gov. Frank Murkowski vetoed $138 million from the state budget, including about $112 million from the operating budget, which is used to pay state employees' salaries. Approximately $27 million came from the capital budget, which is used largely for public works projects.

Budget chief Frasca said the administration is looking to cut up to another $250 million from the budget next year. The cuts are largely due to declining oil revenues and Murkowski's promise to draw no more than $400 million from the state's savings account, the Constitutional Budget Reserve.

Duncan said much of this year's $138 million cut involves pass-through funds such as the $44 million cut from the longevity bonus to seniors and $22 million in revenue sharing for municipalities.

"If they follow through with the $250 million reduction, that is going to have a significant impact on our membership," Duncan said. "We expect (layoffs) will continue and we can expect continued reduction in government."

Bruce Ludwig, Southeast business manager for the Alaska Public Employees Association, which represents about 1,800 state workers in management positions, said the list of employees who have been laid off increased during the last month. But Ludwig added that the number of layoffs is not always a good gauge of how many employees have left government jobs because many people who serve as supervisors choose retirement over unemployment.

Another problem, Ludwig noted, is that when jobs are eliminated the remaining employees often are expected to pick up the slack.

"They're cutting the number of people doing the work and not cutting the amount of work the department is expected to do," he said.

Don Valesko, business manager for Public Employees Local 71, which represents about 1,500 labor, trades and crafts workers who maintain state facilities such as roads and buildings, said he is concerned the state is headed for a downturn in the economy like in the mid-1980s.

He said Local 71 has not seen severe cuts this year.

"There is no place left to cut without directly impacting the services that people demand," he said. "I have to give this administration credit. They recognize the need to have people out there to maintain the facilities."