March Jobs Up 0.3 Percent From Last Year; Unemployment Rate At 6.5 Percent
Apr. 19, 2019
No. 19-11
JUNEAU, Alaska-March employment was up an estimated 0.3 percent, or 1,000 jobs, from March 2018.
Construction added the largest number of jobs from last March (1,100), followed by health care and the transportation, warehousing and utilities sector, which both added 400 jobs. Manufacturing - which is mostly seafood processing in Alaska - had the biggest over-the-year decline at 500 jobs. Professional and business services fell by 300.
The federal job count fell by 200 and local government by 100. State government was up 100 jobs.
Alaska’s seasonally adjusted February unemployment rate remained at 6.5 percent, and the comparable national rate remained at 3.8 percent.
Not-seasonally adjusted rates fell in most areas of the state, but rose slightly in five areas and remained the same in the Kodiak Island Borough.
The state’s lowest rates continued to be in Aleutians East Borough (2.2 percent) and Aleutians West Census Area (2.9 percent) due to winter fishing. Kusilvak, a rural area with high unemployment year round, had the highest rate at 21.3 percent. Last month, rates in Skagway, Denali and Hoonah-Angoon were also over 20 percent, but preparing for the visitor season pushed those rates down in March. The state’s largest rate decline was in Skagway, where it fell from 23.6 percent in February to 18.5 percent in March.
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