Hawaii’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.4 percent in November for the fifth straight month, the state reported today.

Hawaii fared better than the nation as a whole, which experienced an increase in the jobless rate to 9.8 percent in November from 9.6 percent in October.

The unemployment rate is derived from  a telephone survey of households. A separate survey of Hawaii businesses showed that employers hired an additional 1,200 workers in November from October.

The tourism and business services sectors were the big gainers, each adding 300 employees.
The biggest cutback was in the trade, transportation and utilities sector, which lost 1,500 jobs.