"Most of us walk around as if we're sleeping. We really don't experience the world fully because we're half-asleep, doing things we automatically think we have to do...""
The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development has released the unemployment figures for the month of September. The numbers, before being seasonally adjusted, showed that the state jobless rate rose to 7.7 percent from 7.1 percent in August. In September 2008, the state’s jobless rate, before being seasonally adjusted, stood at 6.1 percent.
Locally, numbers from the Kenai Peninsula Borough showed that the jobless rate for September stood at 9.7 percent. That compares to 8.5 percent for August and 7.2 percent for September of 2008.
Other numbers showed unemployment in Anchorage for September to be 7.0 percent. The jobless rate in the Mat-Su was 8.8 percent.
The state says the overall job count fell by an estimated 8,600 jobs in September. That is fairly typical due to seasonal declines in seafood processing, construction and tourism-related industries.
Oil and gas jobs have fallen slightly, this year, after growing strongly for several years. Construction jobs have dropped over the year, too. Health care was the only private-sector industry showing growth over the year.
