Alaska Employment: Construction Job Growth Offsets Seafood Processing Losses in July
Photo Credit: FUNTAP P | DREAMSTIME
Faster growth in year-over-year job totals couldn’t budge the statewide unemployment rate. The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development puts the seasonally adjusted figure for July at 4.5 percent, unchanged from May and June.
Steady for Three Straight Months
The statewide rate in July compares to the national rate of 4.3 percent, which was a slight increase from June. Rates have more than recovered from levels prior to the COVID-19 pandemic; unemployment rates in Alaska were typically higher than 6 percent prior to the oil price crash of 2014.
The unadjusted unemployment rate in the Anchorage area fell to 4 percent in July from a revised 4.5 percent in June. Fisheries in Southwest gave that region some of the lowest unemployment in the state, with 1.5 percent in the Bristol Bay Borough and 1.8 percent in the Aleutians East Borough. However, the region also contains the state’s highest unemployment, with 12.1 percent in the Bethel area and 22.7 percent in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Both of those census areas saw higher unemployment than a year earlier.
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The total number of nonfarm jobs in July was 357,800, up from a revised 352,000 a month before. Compared to a year earlier, the state counted 6,900 more jobs, or 2 percent year-over-year growth, up from June’s 1.5 percent annual growth. Private sector employment grew by 2.1 percent since last year, outpacing government job growth of 1.4 percent.
The manufacturing sector, largely driven by seafood processing, saw the largest annual percentage drop, losing 1,700 jobs compared to July 2023, or a loss of 7.5 percent. The information sector lost 200 jobs from a year ago, for another 4.3 percent monthly contraction. Financial activities lost 100 jobs, for a 0.9 percent annual loss. The wholesale and retail sectors were unchanged from a year earlier.
The construction sector saw the biggest percentage gain, up by 14.6 percent more jobs in July than the year before, climbing from 19,800 to 22,700. Those 2,900 new jobs, largely attributed to federally funded infrastructure and North Slope oil and gas projects, outpaced strong growth in healthcare, oil and gas, and transportation, warehousing, and utilities.
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