Alaska's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate finished the year at 6.6%. The comparable national rate in December was 7.8%. This was an improvement of 0.8% and 0.7% respectively for Alaska and the U.S. versus the December of 2011 rates.
As seen in the graph below by the Alaska Department of Labor, for over four years Alaska has been doing better than the U.S. in terms of unemployment. The unemployment rate is even better in our largest communities. The preliminary, not seasonally adjusted, rate for Anchorage was 5.2%, Juneau 5%, and Fairbanks at 6.2%. The Mat-Su rate improved from 8.9% in 2011 to 8% in December of 2012, but is still higher than the national unemployment levels.
High levels of unemployment still persist in several rural areas of Alaska. The worst situations are the Aleutians East Borough at 28.6%, the Municipality of Skagway at 23.5% and the Hoonah-Angoon Census Area at 22.7%. However, the North Slope Borough has the lowest unemployment levels in the state at 4.6%.
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