Alaska’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development released employment numbers for August. The employment rate is down 0.6 percent from August 2017 and the unemployment rate sits at 6.7 percent, down two-tenths of a point from July.
Retail had the biggest loss of jobs losing 1,000 jobs. Professional and business services and oil and gas both lost 400 jobs. Health care continues to grow with an increase of 700 jobs. Construction and transportation also saw a small increases with 300 and 200 jobs respectively. The federal government added 100 jobs, but couldn’t offset the loss of 400 local government jobs. State government was flat.
Seasonally adjusted unemployment was down two-tenths of a percent from July and down six-tenths of a percent from the first of the year. The national average remained at 3.9 percent. As expected, the highest unemployment rates in the state are in rural areas with little commercial fishing or tourism. Five boroughs or census areas had unemployment over 5 percent. Those areas include Kusilvak Census Area, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Northwest Arctic Borough, Bethel Census Area, and Nome Census Area.
For full employment data please visit the Alaska Department of Labor.
Comments