Alaska employers continue to pare payrolls, according to the latest figures from the state Department of Labor.

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Government and private employers statewide had 1,100 fewer workers on their payrolls in June than they did one year earlier.

June was the second straight month of job losses, an indication that effects of the struggling national economy have seeped into Alaska and might be causing the state to join the global recession.

While Alaska employment was up in June compared with May due to more seasonal workers getting jobs, this is not the best indicator of the state's economic health.

Instead, economists watch employment in one month compared to that same month a year ago. If the number of jobs is up, that indicates the economy is growing. If it's down, the economy could be shrinking.

The two-month decline -- May and June -- is not long enough to say conclusively that recession has entered Alaska, but the trend is not promising.

The Alaska construction industry has been hammered the hardest, down 1,200 jobs in June compared with a year earlier as fewer houses, buildings and oil field projects are under way. In all, 18,700 people held Alaska construction jobs in June. The industry was down 600 jobs in Anchorage.

Retailers also had cut back in the past year. The industry had 37,000 jobs statewide in June. That was down 900 positions in a year. Anchorage retail jobs were down 200 positions, while Southeast, where the tourism industry could be pinched by the national recession, was down 300 jobs.

Restaurants and bars, an industry that supported 21,600 jobs statewide in June, was down 400 positions in the past year. Anchorage was down 300 jobs.

Some industries are growing, including government, the state's biggest industry in terms of employment.

Federal, state and local government jobs grew by 800 positions statewide in June, compared with a year earlier, while Anchorage had 500 more government jobs.

The health care industry was up 1,100 jobs statewide, to 27,100 total positions in June. The oil industry was up 400 jobs.

In June, the Alaska unemployment rate rose "a statistically insignificant" amount, hitting 8.4 percent after adjusting for seasonal factors, compared with 8.3 percent in May, the Labor Department estimated. That meant about 31,000 workers were without jobs but looking for one in June. A year earlier, about 24,000 workers were unemployed in Alaska.

Alaska's unemployment rate remains below the national rate, which hit a 26-year high of 9.5 percent in June. The two lines crossed this year as the national recession worsened. Historically, the U.S. jobless rate has been much lower than Alaska's.

For 15 other states, unemployment is 10 percent or higher -- at least one in 10 workers. The rate was highest in Michigan at 15 percent, the first time any state hit that mark since 1984.

The Federal Reserve last week projected that the national unemployment rate will pass 10 percent by the end of the year. Most Fed policy makers said it could take "five or six years" for the economy and the labor market to get back on a path of long-term health.

Anchorage's unemployment rate was 7.3 percent -- representing 11,400 jobless workers -- up from 6.8 percent in May and 5.6 percent in June of last year.

The Mat-Su rate was 9.9 percent in June, up from 9.2 percent in May and 7.5 percent in June last year.

The Kenai Peninsula rate was 9.8 percent, the same as in May but up from 7.1 percent in June last year.

Both the unemployment rate and the job losses in Alaska "reveal an economic downturn noticeably less severe than what the U.S. as a whole is experiencing," the Labor Department said. While Alaska lost 0.3 percent of its jobs in the past year, the nation lost 4.2 percent.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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