Anchorage-Area Unemployment Rate Steady: Latest Data

ANCHORAGE, AK — The national unemployment rate continued falling in October to near pre-pandemic levels, with the addition of 531,000 jobs to the national economy, but the number of job openings remains high.

The labor force participation rate, a measure of the employed share of the civilian population, was unchanged in October from September's 61.6 percent — 1.7 percentage points lower than the rate in February 2020. Nationwide, there were about 10.4 million job openings at the end of September.

Meanwhile, the national unemployment rate dropped from 4.8 percent to 4.6 percent from September to October, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The pre-pandemic unemployment rate was 3.5 percent.

The most recent available local unemployment figures are for September; that rate stayed the same as August for the Anchorage area and is still lower than it was during the worst of the pandemic, the BLS said.

The Anchorage unemployment rate was 4.8 percent in September, unchanged from August. That reflected some improvement from September 2020, when the unemployment rate stood at 6.6 percent.

The September unemployment rate in Anchorage was also lower than the Alaska rate of 5.2 percent, according to the latest figures from the BLS.

Also, the BLS revised its August and September national job report figures. September’s figures were revised upward from 194,000 jobs added to 312,000 added, and August's total rose from 366,000 jobs added to 483,000 added.

Editor's note: This post was automatically generated using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program. County and state figures are not seasonally adjusted and September figures are preliminary. Please report any errors or other feedback to content@patch.com.