State unemployment at pre-recession levels

Alaska’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a point in April to 6 percent. The adjusted national rate for the month was 7.5 percent.

From March to April the national rate fell 0.1 percent.

The last time the state’s adjusted unemployment was as low as 6 percent was in the summer of 2007, prior to the national recession, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

In April 2012, Alaska’s rate was a full point higher at 7 percent and the national rate was 8.1 percent at the time.

Alaska’s non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell three-tenths of a point in April to 6.3 percent. More significant drops are common between March and April as summer employment begins to ramp-up, but the Labor Department attributes the smaller decline this year to a larger-than-average, 0.5 percent drop from February to March.

Non-adjusted rates fell in all but five of the state’s 29 boroughs and census areas in April. The rates in Nome and Anchorage held steady and rose in the Kodiak Island Borough and Aleutians West and Bethel census areas. The rising rates are typical of those areas where winter fisheries are ending.

Rates in the Denali Borough, Skagway and Southeast’s Hoonah-Angoon Census Area fell more than 4 percent in preparation of the tourism season.

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