Alaska’s unemployment rate jumped to 8.9 percent last month.
State labor officials on Thursday said that’s 0.6 percentage point increase over the adjusted rate of 8.3 percent in September.
Alaska’s jobless rate has increased 0.8 percentage points over the last two months. But it remains well below the national average, which was 10.2 percent in October.
State officials say employment estimates from last month show a seasonal decline of 16,000 jobs as summer seafood processing, construction and tourism jobs ended.
The state had about 3,000 jobs less jobs last month compared to the previous October. The biggest losses were in the construction, retail and food service trades. However, health care jobs have increased by about 1,400 positions over the last year.
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