State labor officials said in late April that the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 6.4 was virtually unchanged from February, higher than the comparable national unemployment rate of 4.5 percent.
The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development said preliminary estimates showed employment was down by 7,100 jobs, or 2.2 percent, compared to March 2016.
Substantial losses continued in oil, construction, state government and professional and business services, which are tied to oil and construction activity. The only industries that saw employment growth were health care, local government and leisure and hospitality.
Although the state has been losing jobs for over a year, employment loss doesn’t necessarily lead to higher unemployment rates, labor officials said. To be counted as unemployed, a person must remain in the state and be actively seeking work.
The not-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for March was 7.2 percent, down two-tenths of a percentage point from February, which is a typical seasonal change.
