Employment numbers from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development show that while December employment was down and estimated 0.3 percent from December 2017, January employment rose an estimated 0.2 percent from January 2018.
During the month of December, Alaska lost about 900 jobs, with retail, manufacturing, and professional and business services each losing 400 jobs. Health care continued to add jobs, with an addition of 400 jobs to wrap up the year. Alaska’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.3 percent in December. This is higher than the national average of 3.9 percent.
In January, Alaska gained 500 jobs. The biggest increase can from construction that added 800 jobs over January 2018. Health care continues to grow, with an addition of 400 jobs. State government, oil and gas, transportation, warehousing, and utilities, and local government all added jobs in the first month of the year.
Alaska’s seasonally adjusted January unemployment was 6.5 percent, a little higher than December’s rate. Not-seasonally adjusted rates rose in all areas of the state, other than Aleutians West and East, which had the lowest rates due to winter fishing. Skagway and Denali had the highest rates in the state at 21.6 and 21.2 percent, which is normal due to the off-season for tourism. Anchorage and Juneau had lower rates than the state’s average, which Fairbanks was just over the state’s average.
Full employment data can be found at http://live.laborstats.alaska.gov/labforce/
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