City jobless rate fell in late 2013

Honolulu’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent in December, the 19th-lowest rate out of 372 metropolitan areas nationwide, the U.S. Labor Department reported.

Honolulu’s jobless rate fell from 4.1 percent in November.

Honolulu was tied for the 19th-lowest jobless rate in December with three other metro areas: Ogden, Utah; Rapid City, S.D.; and Rochester, Minn., according to a recent report.

Bismarck, N.D., claimed the nation’s lowest unemployment rate in December at 2.8 percent, while Yuma, Ariz., topped the list at 27.1 percent.

Honolulu’s December jobless rate was the lowest among the state’s counties. The other unemployment rates were 4.6 percent in Maui County, 5.1 percent in Kauai County and 5.9 percent in Hawaii County.

Metropolitan area unemployment data are not adjusted for seasonal variations, such as workers who are hired temporarily by retailers for the holiday shopping season.

The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations reported last month that the statewide unemployment rate rose to 4.5 percent in December from 4.4 percent in April on a seasonally adjusted basis. Nationwide the unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent in December from 7 percent in November.

On Friday the U.S. Labor Department said the unemployment rate dropped further to 6.6 percent in January, the lowest in more than five years.

The unemployment rate is derived from a telephone survey of households. A separate survey of businesses showed that the number of payroll jobs in Hono­­lulu rose to 462,500 in December from 461,000 in November.