Alaska's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.2 percent for the fourth month in a row in November, but the state continued to lose jobs.
Employment was down an estimated 0.9 percent (or 2,800 jobs) last month compared to November 2016, the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development said in a statement Friday, but job losses "have moderated noticeably in the second half of 2017."
Once again, health care was the only industry to add jobs last month, the labor department said. Oil and gas sector jobs were down 7.8 percent, and construction was down 4.8 percent.
[Unemployment insurance claims in Alaska are at 'historic lows']
There are several reasons why Alaska continues to lose jobs without seeing the unemployment rate go up. Some people might have moved out of the state after losing a job, for example. Another factor is that some positions may have been lost to retirements.
Some economists in the state believe the worst may have passed when it comes to job losses in Alaska's current recession, which began in the last quarter of 2015.