February’s job count was up 2.5 percent from February 2022, an increase of 7,700 jobs.
Nearly all industries recorded growth. Gains were largest in transportation, warehousing and utilities (+2,300), leisure and hospitality (+2,100), and professional and business services (+700). Transportation, responsible for most of the growth in that sector, and leisure and hospitality sustained some of the biggest losses during the pandemic, but the transportation, warehousing and utilities sector is now above pre-pandemic job levels and leisure and hospitality and professional and business services are close.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough, not seasonally adjusted unemployment rates, dropped from 7.0 in January to 5.7 in February 2023.
The only over-the-year job loss was in manufacturing (-100), which in Alaska is mainly seafood processing and can vary considerably from year to year. Financial activities and state and federal government employment were flat over the year.
The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.8 percent in February — no change from January’s revised rate — and the comparable U.S. rate was 3.6 percent, up from 3.4 percent in January.