An Alaska jobs two-fer

The U.S. Department of Labor released its monthly jobs report on Friday morning, and things looked pretty bleak as unemployment moved to 9.2 percent and employers added many fewer jobs than anticipated. Meanwhile, two new reports gauged some of the job activity in Alaska and in Anchorage, the state's largest city. The good news is that Forbes found Anchorage to be the third-best mid-sized city for jobs in the U.S., coming in behind Corpus Christi and El Paso, both in Texas. According to Forbes, this is the same rank the city had last year, and employment in the city grew by 1.5 percent in the last year. Meanwhile, 24/7 Wall Street reports that Alaska has the third-highest decline in white-collar jobs, behind North Dakota and Missouri. The report is hardly alarming, however, as it concludes that Alaska's rate of white-collar employment fell by only .71 percent, attributing the loss primarily to oil field development and that the Department of Labor has noted job growth in the construction, agriculture, manufacturing, and energy sectors. North Dakota and Missouri had declines in white-collar employment of 4.76 percent and 8.14 percent, respectively. Read more and see the full lists, at Forbes and 24/7 Wall Street.