State labor officials say the October job count dropped 8.8 percent from last October, a loss of 28,900 jobs, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic sweeping the nation and the world.
With the exception of federal government temporary hires of 200 census workers in Alaska, every industry’s employment numbers were down, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Leisure and hospitality were hardest hit, with 9,600 fewer jobs than last October, down 27.7 percent. Transportation, warehousing and utilities had 4,700 few jobs, a drop of 20.7 percent, mainly in transportation. Oil and gas employment dropped 30.6 percent, or 3,000 jobs, and the professional and business services sector was down by 9.1 percent or 2,500 jobs.
The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 5.9 percent in October, compared to the national rate of 6.9 percent.
State labor officials said that jobs and unemployment insurance claims offer better indicators of the state’s economic health than the unemployment rate. Still job losses remain historically large and claims during the second week of October were about seven times higher than for October of 2019.
The same technical problems rolled down to Alaska’s not-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for boroughs and census areas, Consequently, the October rates suggest more improvements for local economies than unemployment insurance claims and job numbers support, the agency said.
