Alaska unemployment hit 6.5 percent in February

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Alaska’s unemployment rate rose slightly in February to 6.5 percent.

Seasonally unadjusted unemployment stood at 6.4 percent in January. It was also 6.5 percent in February 2013.

Nationally, unemployment last month stood at 6.7 percent.

The state labor department, in a release, says this was the second month in a row in which the national rate was two-tenths of a percentage above Alaska’s. The department says that’s the closest the national rate has come to the state’s unemployment rate since surpassing it in November 2008.