ALPENA — Joblessness spiked sharply in June in Northeast Michigan, state data released Thursday showed.

Across Alpena, Presque Isle, Montmorency, and Alcona counties, nearly 7% of working-age adults who were looking for a job couldn’t find one, according to data from the Michigan Department of Technology, Management, and Budget.

That’s up from 5.5% in May and higher than the 6% recorded in June 2023.

Statewide, meanwhile, the unemployment rate jumped from about 4% in May to about 5% in June.

Northeast Michigan’s unemployment rate shot up as the labor force — the share of people either working or looking for work — shrank by 38 people from May to June to 27,095 workers last month and the number of unemployed — those looking for work but not working — jumped by 298 people from May to June, leaving 1,685 Northeast Michiganders out of work last month.

In the first six months of the year, Northeast Michigan’s unemployment rate increased three months and shrank three months.

That data is not seasonally adjusted.

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Alpena County’s 5% unemployment in June tied with several other counties for the 28th-lowest unemployment rate among Michigan’s 83 counties.

Presque Isle County’s and Alcona County’s 7.5% tied for the fourth-highest in the state.

Montmorency County’s nearly 8% unemployment was the second-highest in the state.

The most unemployed county in Michigan was Oscoda County, where about 8% were unemployment.

The least unemployed county in Michigan was Northeast Michigan’s Grand Traverse County, where about 4% were unemployed.