The latest jobless numbers show that Alaska's economy is holding steady despite low oil prices and looming cuts to state spending.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Alaska rose slightly in March to 6.5 percent, up from 6.3 percent the previous month, but down from 6.9 percent during the same period in 2014.
Caroline Schultz, an economist with the state Department of Labor, said the uptick is not yet cause for concern.
"It's too soon to see real signs from this looming dark cloud in the economy," Schultz said. "The gist of it is there's not much happening yet."
Jobless numbers were essentially stable in the state's major regions, from Southeast to northern Alaska, compared to last month and to the same period last year.
In terms of employment, over the past year the retail sector provided the largest source of new jobs in Anchorage, while professional and business services posted the biggest losses. With the lack of snow thwarting winter recreation, leisure and hospitality jobs were also down slightly.
In the Interior, health care employment bounced back after a lag compared to a year ago, but state and federal government jobs were down.
The numbers in Southeast were slightly worse than last year, with lower job growth in construction and seafood processing and declines in government employment.
Alaska's jobless rate was lower than the nation's at the end of 2009 as the global recession took its toll on the greater U.S. economy, but rose above it again at the end of 2013 as employment in the rest of the country picked up.