News File Photo A "help wanted" sign appears in the door of a Rogers City business in this May 2022 News archive photo.

ALPENA — The unemployment rate ticked upward last month when compared to May but remained slightly lower than in June 2022.

The June unemployment rate across Alpena, Presque Isle, Montmorency, and Alcona counties registered at about 6.1%, up a bit from the 5.8% recorded in May, according to data released Thursday by the Michigan Department of Technology, Management, and Budget.

The unemployment rate in June 2022 was 6.4%.

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Northeast Michigan remains more unemployed than the state as a whole.

DTMB recorded a statewide unemployment rate of 4.1% last month, up from 3.8% in May, but down from 4.8% in June 2022.

In a Thursday statement accompanying the data release, Wayne Rourke, labor market information director of the Michigan Center for Data and Analytics, called June unemployment upticks “typical.”

Forty-eight of Michigan’s 83 counties recorded jobless rate increases between May and June, DTMB said in a news release, while joblessness decreased in 26 counties and nine county unemployment rates went unchanged month-over-month. Sixty-seven Michigan counties recorded lower unemployment rates last month than in June 2022.

Northeast Michigan’s unemployment rate increased as the labor force — a measure of people either working or looking for work — shrank by 149 people but the number of unemployed Northeast Michiganders — those looking for work but unable to find it — increased by 66 people.

The labor force can shrink as people retire, die, leave the area, or simply give up looking for work.

In total, 26,367 people participated in the labor force across Alpena, Presque Isle, Montmorency, and Alcona counties last month, while 1,519 of those people said they couldn’t find work.

Alpena County recorded 5.1% unemployment last month, tied with several other counties for the 46th-lowest in the state.

Presque Isle County’s 6.2% ranked 69th.

Montmorency County’s 6.9% was the fifth-highest unemployment rate in the state.

Alcona County’s 6.5% was the ninth-highest.

The least unemployed county in the state was Southeast Michigan’s Livingston County, where 2.8% of the labor force couldn’t find a job.

The most unemployed county in the state was the Upper Peninsula’s Ontonagon County, where the state recorded 8.1% joblessness.

The unemployment figures released by the state are not seasonally adjusted.