Alaska unemployment rate holds steady at 6.5 per cent

JUNEAU, Alaska – Alaska’s unemployment rate remained steady at 6.5 per cent last month.

Federal labour statistics show that rate has held since August.

Unemployment stood at 6.7 per cent in April 2018.

The state labour department says employment was up an estimated 0.9 per cent from April 2018, with construction adding the largest number of jobs at 1,800.

Health care and oil and gas each added 500 jobs over the period while manufacturing had the biggest decline. The department says manufacturing in Alaska is mostly seafood processing.

The state labour department says there were 200 fewer federal jobs last month compared to April 2018, while local government grew by 200 jobs and state government by 100 jobs.