May 20, 2002
Monday - 9:30 pm

Alaska's unemployment rate fell to 6.7% in April, a decrease of five-tenths of a percentage point from March's revised rate of 7.2%. The lower April rate represents a typical seasonal movement as Alaska approaches the summer months and peak employment. It also suggests that Alaska's economy is holding the course characterized in recent years by modest but consistent employment growth and relatively low unemployment rates. The comparable national rate fell four-tenths of a percentage point to 5.7%. Dan Robinson, a labor economist with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, reported the numbers.    The number of unemployed Alaskans fell by almost 1,800 in April to 21,515. Comparing the current number of unemployed with the year-ago level shows a 6.9% increase, although the current number is slightly lower than it was in April 2000. Anchorage's unemployment rate fell three-tenths of a percentage point from March's revised rate to 4.6%. Fairbanks saw a similar decline, falling from 6.3% to 5.9% in April. Juneau's drop was slightly larger, falling seven-tenths of a percentage point to 4.9%. Both Anchorage and Juneau show marginally higher rates over the year, while the rate for Fairbanks is one-tenth of a percentage point lower than in April 2001. Aleutians East Borough recorded the state's lowest April unemployment rate at 3.5%; Wade Hampton had the highest at 20.3%. Every region except the Southwest saw a monthly decline in its unemployment rate, the most dramatic drop being in the Southeast region where the rate fell from 9.1% to 7.6%. Compared to year-ago levels, five of the state's six regions show slightly higher unemployment rates, with the most noticeable difference being in the Northern Region where the current rate of 11.9% is one percentage point higher than in April 2001. On the other end of the spectrum, the Gulf Coast Region saw an over-the-year decrease of one-tenth of a percentage point. Wage and salary employment figures for April show that the state added more than 3,000 jobs since March, an increase of 1.1%. Over-the-year growth has slowed to 0.8%. More than 2,000 new government jobs, all at the state and local level, account for most of the job growth in the last year. The services sector has also added more than 1,000 jobs to the economy, which partly compensate for job losses in the oil and manufacturing industries.

Source of News Release:

Alaska Department of Labor
Web Site

Post a Comment -------View Comments

Submit an Opinion - Letter