Hawaii’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 4.4 percent in June for the third month in a row as the state’s economy continued to remain on firm ground.
Until these last three months, the last time the state’s unemployment rate was that low was in August 2008, when it also was at 4.4 percent. Its recent peak was 7.1 percent in both July and August 2009 during the most recent recession.
Hawaii continues to perform much better than the nation as a whole, where the unemployment rate was 6.1 percent in June, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. The jobless rate in Hawaii has now been below 5 percent for 18 straight months.
A year ago Hawaii’s unemployment rate was 4.7 percent.
"The overall unemployment rate is good news," said Leroy Laney, a professor of economics and finance at Hawaii Pacific University. "It seems to be stabilizing around that rate, but that’s not a bad number to stabilize at given the national unemployment rate and the unemployment rate at a number of other states. We’re still near the bottom, and that’s a positive sign for the economy."
Hawaii’s labor force, comprising those who are employed and others who are unemployed but actively seeking work, decreased to 661,550 in June from a record 661,900 during the previous month but is still up significantly from a year ago, when it was 647,150.
Despite the increase of construction projects in Kakaako, the number of construction workers statewide fell to 30,500 last month from 31,200 in May and 30,900 in June 2013.
Laney said that decline could be "an aberration" and possibly could be related to something that happened on one project.
The state and national labor force data are adjusted for seasonal factors. County jobs data are not seasonally adjusted.
The DLIR report showed that the unemployment rate rose across all counties in June from May. It increased to 4.5 percent from 4.1 percent in Honolulu County, to 6.6 percent from 5.8 percent in Hawaii County, to 5.4 percent from 4.9 percent in Kauai County and to 5.1 percent from 4.7 percent in Maui County.
Within Maui County the jobless rate on the island of Maui rose to 4.8 percent from 4.6 percent and on Molokai increased to 13.8 percent from 8.6 percent. It remained steady on Lanai at 3.4 percent.
The unemployment rate is derived largely from a monthly telephone survey of households. A separate survey of businesses showed that the number of jobs in Hawaii fell by 2,300 in June from May. Over the past year the number of jobs has increased by 4,800.
The business category with the largest job increase on a year-over-year basis was leisure and hospitality, which added 1,800 positions. Professional and business services added 1,700 positions while trade, transportation and utilities added 1,400 positions. During that same 12-month period, jobs in state government grew by 1,400 while federal government positions fell by 700.
Laney said the unemployment rate could hover in the 4 percent range "for some time."
"There tends to be a labor shortage if it gets down to the 3 percent range, but I don’t see the underlying strength of the economy being that strong," he said. "If construction were to have another shot in the arm from rail transit or something like that, that would put us over the top and lower the unemployment rate. An additional boost from tourism might make some difference, and let’s not forget about the domestic sectors of the economy like business and professional services, education and health. Any of those things could contribute."
