Alaska's unemployment count fell in August as the labor force shrank

Alaska had 900 fewer jobs in August than a year earlier, and the reason is Washington. The state lost 1,700 public-sector jobs over the year, 1,300 of them federal, more than wiping out the 800 jobs private employers added.

The headline unemployment rate looks better than that: 3.5 percent, down from 3.7 percent a year ago, with about 12,700 Alaskans counted as unemployed in August. But the rate fell partly because the labor force shrank. About 5,300 fewer people were working in August than in July, and the pool of people either working or looking dropped by a similar amount, which is the usual end-of-summer pattern as seasonal jobs wind down.

The state's own figure isn't adjusted for that seasonal swing. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, which does adjust, puts Alaska's August rate at 4.3 percent, unchanged from July. All August numbers are preliminary.

The federal job losses land at the end of a year in which the state has seen federal positions cut across agencies, and they are now large enough to show up in Alaska's overall employment picture.