unemployment

The state says that getting denied unemployment insurance is a prerequisite for getting payments for the program that is being set up to help self-employed workers.

Tuesday, legislators began looking at the discrepancy between Department of Labor reports of high employment on the North Slope and high unemployment among Alaskans qualified to work there.

Three years into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, almost 1 in 10 Americans is out-of-work. In many parts of the country, the situation is even worse. On this special Labor Day edition of BackStory, the History Guys take on the history of joblessness, and explore what it's meant for previous generations of Americans.KSKA: Monday 9/5 at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm

Alaska’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose slightly to 7.5 percent in June. The Alaska Department of Labor calls the increase statistically insignificant, as May’s rate was revised up, from 7.3 percent to 7.4 percent.

Alaska's unemployment rate for May was 7.4 percent. State Department of Labor data show's that's up slightly from April's 7.3 percent and compares to a national rate in May of 9.1 percent.

Alaska Natives are more educated, have more jobs, and are making more money than they were 40 years ago. But they are still well below the national…