July jobless rate of 5.7% has Honolulu tied for 35th lowest

Honolulu’s unemployment rate dropped to 5.7 percent in July, putting it in a select group of 43 of the nation’s metropolitan areas with jobless rates below 6 percent, according to a report released Wednesday.

The July unemployment rate fell from 6.3 percent in June and 6.1 percent from July 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Honolulu’s July jobless rate was tied for 35th lowest out of 372 metropolitan areas surveyed by the BLS.

Honolulu’s job market has outperformed the rest of the state in recent years, thanks to a relatively stronger economy. Elsewhere around the state, the July unemployment rate was 6.8 percent in Maui County, 7.8 percent in Kauai County and 9.3 percent in Hawaii County.

"Most job growth since the recession has occurred on Oahu, not the neighbor islands," Hawaii Pacific University economist Leroy Laney said last week at a business outlook forum on Hawaii island.

County job market data are not adjusted for seasonal variations, such as teachers returning to work after the summer break.

The statewide non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.4 percent in July. Nationally, the non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 8.6 percent in July.

Honolulu’s 5.7 percent jobless rate in July matched rates in Columbia, Mo., and Manchester, N.H.

The nation’s lowest unemployment rates were in the Plains states. Bismark and Fargo, N.D., which are enjoying the benefits of the state’s oil industry boom, were at the bottom of the list with jobless rates of 2.5 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively.

At the other end of the spectrum were Yuma, Ariz., and El Centro, Calif., adjoining towns on the Mexico border with jobless rates of 31.2 percent and 29.9 percent, respectively.

The unemployment rate is derived largely from a telephone poll of households. A separate survey of businesses showed that the number of nonfarm payroll jobs in Honolulu fell to 437,200 in July from 441,200 in June.