Alaska Employment: Annual Job Growth Up Slightly in September by 2 Percent
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Month-to-month growth in construction jobs couldn’t offset losses in seafood manufacturing, holding the statewide unemployment rate steady from August to September. The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development puts the seasonally adjusted figure at 4.6 percent.
Constrained to Narrow Band
The statewide unemployment rate in September compares to the national rate of 4.1 percent, which was a slight decrease from August. Alaska’s rate has remained within a narrow band all year; apart from a bump to 4.7 percent in February, monthly figures have held between 4.5 and 4.6 percent each month, slightly higher than the trend in 2023.
The unadjusted unemployment rate in the Anchorage area remained at 3.6 percent in September. Only the Southeast region was lower, at 3.3 percent, thanks to the lowest local rate of 1.8 percent in Skagway. The area with the highest unemployment, the Kusilvak Census Area in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, saw improvement at 15.1 percent, down from 19.2 in August.
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The total number of nonfarm jobs in August was 347,700, a steep drop from a revised 355,400 in August but 6,700 more than a year earlier. The 2 percent year-over-year growth was driven by 2.3 percent more jobs in the private sector, while government jobs grew by 0.8 percent.
The manufacturing sector, largely driven by seafood processing, saw the largest annual percentage drop, losing 800 jobs compared to September 2023, or a loss of 5.6 percent. The information sector lost 200 jobs from a year ago, for another 4.3 percent monthly contraction. Local government (not counting schools) shed 400 jobs, and the retail sector lost 100, year over year. All other sectors saw job growth.
The construction sector saw the biggest percentage gain, up by 10.3 percent in September compared to the year before, or 2,000 more, despite shedding 1,100 jobs since August. Those construction jobs, largely attributed to federally funded infrastructure and North Slope oil and gas projects, outpaced strong growth in healthcare, adding another 2,000 jobs year-over-year. The oil and gas sector counted 600 more jobs, for 7.8 percent annual growth.
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