Alaska's employment rate in July was 7.7 percent, up half a percent from June. Since May, the state's unemployment rate has gone up seven-tenths of a point.

State labor officials say in a release that while the July increase was high, it may be "overstated" because preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rates can be revised monthly or annually. Those revisions can substantially change values.

Alaska's unemployment rate in July 2011 was 7.6 percent.

The national rate went up one-tenth of a percentage point last month and stood at 8.3 percent.