Alaska's Unemployment Rate Drops to 7.3%

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by Maggie Young

Story Created: Dec 16, 2011 at 4:31 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Dec 17, 2011 at 9:24 PM AKDT

Alaska's unemployment rate is down to 7.3%,  its lowest for the first time since last spring.

Local economists say that this is the first time it's gone down over a year since 2006.

But another detail that stands out is that this has happened near the winter time, when tourism and jobs usually drop.

The seasonal change was factored into the statistic, but the unemployment decrease is still evident.

Economist, Neal Fried said that despite the decrease in Alaska, the big news is the decrease for the United States.

Nation wide unemployment decreased from 9% to 8.6%.

Fried said that this still benefits Alaskans because if there are more jobs in the lower 48, there will be less people migrating to Alaska to take the jobs there.
    

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