Alaska Employment: Unemployment Rate Flat in August; Total Jobs Down
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Alaska’s unemployment rate remained steady, despite another month with fewer total jobs than a year earlier. The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOLWD) puts the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August at 4.3 percent, the same as July. The rate is settling at a slightly lower plateau than the 4.6 to 4.7 percent trend in almost every month for more than a year.
Labor Participation Falling All Year
DOLWD notes that the national unemployment rate was also unchanged in August at 4.1 percent.
The unadjusted unemployment rate in the Anchorage/Mat-Su Region dropped to 3.2 percent in August from July’s 3.3 percent. All regions of the state continue to see lower unemployment rates compared to a year earlier. However, the Southwest region saw a month-to-month increase in August to 7.3 percent from July’s 7.2, still lower than 8.1 percent in August 2025.
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September 2026
DOLWD counted 356,100 total nonfarm jobs in August, down from a revised 358,000 in July. The figure is 900 jobs lower than in August 2025, resulting in a contraction of 0.3 percent. The negative growth is smaller than the 0.6 percent decrease in jobs in July but continues a trend that began in June after a flat year-over-year employment total in May.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, labor force participation in August fell to a seasonally adjusted 65.5 percent, which is the number of all employed and unemployed workers divided against the state’s civilian population. The rate has been falling since February, when it hit a post-pandemic peak of 66.2 percent participation. The last time the rate was higher was in May 2016, but even then participation had been on a steady decline since peaking at 74 percent in 1998.
The private sector added jobs in August, but greater losses in the government sector overwhelmed those gains. Federal, state, and local employment, which includes public schools, rose in August to 74,700 from July’s 71,600, but that compares to 76,400 a year earlier, a difference of 2.2 percent. Local employment held steady year-over-year, but the federal workforce is 1,300 jobs smaller than in August 2025, and state employment is down by 400 jobs compared to a year earlier.
Private sector employers added 800 jobs since August 2025, even though the month-to-month total shrank. Manufacturing, typically dominated by seafood processing, slipped from 21,300 jobs in July to 16,800 in August, or 500 fewer than a year earlier, for a 2.9 percent decrease. Construction also counted fewer jobs; the 20,900 in August was 200 more than in July but 1.9 percent smaller than a year ago, by 400 workers. The leisure and hospitality and professional and business services sectors each shed 200 jobs, and the retail, information, and financial activities sectors contracted by 100 jobs each.
The largest annual growth in percentage terms was in the oil and gas sector, holding steady in August at 9,600 jobs, or 600 more than a year earlier, for a 6.7 percent increase. The transportation, warehousing, and utilities sector posted the largest numerical gain, up by 1,300 jobs year-over-year, for 4.4 percent growth.
What happens when a city with fewer than 300 residents becomes a major freight and tourism hub, despite being accessible only by boat, plane, or a one-lane highway/railroad tunnel managed on a strict schedule?
If you’re in the City of Whittier, you get busy. The city has two separate transportation planning efforts underway, including a safety action plan under the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All initiative, which focuses on improving safety for pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, and emergency responders. The second is Whittier Moves, the city’s transportation master plan, which serves as the long-term roadmap for growth.