The total number of people employed in the state dropped by an estimated 1.3 percent in September compared to the same month a year ago, a loss of about 4,600 jobs, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Over-the-year job losses, however, have decreased this year.
The largest losses during the current downturn were in the fall of 2016 at minus 2.6 percent.
Oil and gas and construction employment were both down 6.7 percent. The only industries to add jobs were health care, at 1.4 percent, leisure and hospitality at 0.3 percent, and local government at 0.2 percent. Federal employment was flat and other industries showed mostly modest losses.
Alaska’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 7.2 percent in September was unchanged from August. Last September that rate was 6.6 percent.
The comparable national rate for September was 4.2 percent.
Alaska’s non-seasonally adjusted rate was 6.6 percent, up three-tenths of a percentage point from August, which is typical as seasonal work wraps up around the state. Unemployment rates were up in 21 of 29 boroughs and census areas, with notable increases in areas dependent on tourism and fishing.
The largest increase was in Bristol Bay, where the rate jumped from 3.6 percent in August to 7.2 percent in September.
Unemployment rates fell in seven boroughs and census areas, and the North Slope Borough’s rate was flat. The largest decline was in the Kusilvak Census Area, although Kusilvak’s rate remained the highest in the state at 17.8 percent, labor officials said.
