Alaska Employment: 313,600 Jobs Puts December Unemployment at 4.5 Percent

The number of jobs in Alaska for 2023 ended about 6,000 higher than when the year began, yet the unemployment rate continued to rise. The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development puts the seasonally adjusted figure for December at 4.5 percent, up from 4.4 in November.

Higher Rate Relatively Low

Despite increasing for the last several months, the statewide rate remains relatively low. Even before the oil price crash of 2014 sent the state economy into recession, unemployment rates were typically higher than 6 percent. The comparable national rate in December held steady at 3.7 percent.

The unadjusted unemployment rate in the Anchorage area rose in December to 4 percent, yet the Anchorage/Matanuska-Susitna Borough had the lowest unemployment of any region. The only lower rates were in the Southeast region, where Juneau saw 3.6 percent and Sitka 3.5, both slightly higher than the local rates in November. Every region saw higher rates than the year before.

The total number of jobs in December was 313,600, a slight decrease from the revised figure for November but a gain of 6,000 jobs since December 2022, a growth rate of 2 percent. Private sector employment grew by 2.3 percent during the year, outpacing government job growth of 1 percent.

State government lost 100 jobs in December compared to a year earlier, and so did the financial activities sector. The information services sector was flat for the year, but all other industries saw job growth throughout the year.