Alaska’s preliminary unemployment rate stood at 6.8 percent last month.
That compares to 6.7 percent in April and 6.9 percent in May 2014.
Alaska has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state with the highest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate last month was West Virginia, where unemployment stood at 7.2 percent.
The state labor department, in a release, says Alaska’s unemployment rate began to decline temporarily last fall after a policy change in unemployment insurance eligibility. But the department says the unemployment rate has since returned to “typical” levels.
The U.S. unemployment rate for May was 5.5 percent.
