Alaska Employment: After Data Interruption, November Unemployment Returns at 4.7%
Photo Credit: FUNTAP P | DREAMSTIME
Employment figures are back after the US government shutdown in October, and… the seasonally adjusted number for Alaska is unchanged. The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOLWD) puts the unemployment rate for November at 4.7 percent, the same as in August and September before federal data collection was interrupted.
A Blip, Then No Change
The streak of 4.7 percent ran every month in 2025 except for July, when it ticked up to 4.8 percent. And the streak extends into mid-2024. Rates slowly climbed from a low point of 3.8 percent in August 2022 until flattening two years later.
The national unemployment rate ticked up slightly from 4.3 percent in August to 4.4 percent in September, and it stood at 4.6 percent in November.
Seasonal adjustment means that labor economics use statistical methods to smooth the predictable fluctuations in, for example, the construction, fishing, and tourism sectors, which regularly peak in summer and decline in the winter. DOLWD says removing that expected seasonal fluctuation provides a clearer picture of whether rates are rising or falling, aside from normal ups and downs over the course of the year.
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The unadjusted unemployment rate in the Anchorage/Mat-Su Region rose in November to 4.4 percent from 3.9 percent in September. That’s higher than in any of the previous three years.
Unadjusted rates in the Interior, Southeast, Northern, and Southwest regions were also higher than the previous three Novembers, at 5, 5, 7, and 10 percent, respectively. The Gulf Coast region saw 6 percent unadjusted employment in November, the same as a year earlier.
DOLWD did not make figures for job totals available for November. Total nonfarm employment last stood at 355,900 in August, a decline from the month before but 2,900 more than a year earlier for 0.8 percent growth year over year.
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