Hawaii economy gains 1,100 jobs in August

Hawaii’s unemployment rate slipped one-tenth of a percentage point in August to 3.4 percent as nonfarm payroll jobs increased by 1,100 over the previous month, according to data released Monday by the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

The state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate, which matched its June number, had been ticking up since dropping to 3.1 percent in February and March.

Total nonfarm payroll jobs last month rose to 651,400 from 650,300 in July, up by 10,800, or 1.7 percent, over the past year. The nonfarm payroll jobs figure includes people who might hold multiple jobs but doesn’t include people who are self-employed.

“The labor data indicate that Hawaii’s labor market continued to perform well in August with the unemployment rate at 3.4 percent, still the sixth lowest in the nation,” said Eugene Tian, chief economist for the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. “The increase of 1,100 jobs is encouraging, especially because we saw a job gain of 100 in the construction industry, which ceased two consecutive months of job losses.”

Tian said the construction job number is consistent with the building permit data.

“The value of building permits decreased during the first quarter of this year, but has been recovering since April,” he said. “For the month of July, the value of Honolulu building permits increased 50.1 percent.”

The U.S. unemployment rate held steady at 4.9 percent in August.

Hawaii’s lowest unemployment rate dating back to January 1976 — the oldest available data on the U.S. Labor Department website — was 2.4 percent, achieved from October through December 2006 and May through September 1989. Hawaii’s recent high was 7.3 percent from May through October 2009 during and after the 18-month Great Recession that ended in June of that year.

The state’s underemployment rate, which takes into account so-called “discouraged workers” who are not employed and those people who are working part-time when they would prefer to be working full-time, has been improving. In the second quarter, the rate for Hawaii was 5.4 percent compared with 5.6 percent in the first quarter. For the U.S., the rate was 5.4 percent for the second quarter and 5.0 percent for the first quarter.

Among the payroll jobs, the largest increase was in professional and business services, up 1,200, with most of that gain in the administrative and support sector. The largest job loss was in the leisure and hospitality category, with a drop of 300 positions.

In another measure of the Hawaii economy, the state’s labor force, which includes people who are employed and those who are unemployed but actively seeking work, edged up to 684,450 from 684,300 in July.

There were 660,900 people employed in August, up from 660,600 the previous month, while the number of unemployed fell to 23,550 from 23,700.

Hawaii’s unemployment rate is derived largely from a monthly telephone survey of households, while a separate survey of businesses determines the number of nonfarm payroll jobs. State and national labor force data are adjusted for seasonal factors, but the county jobs data are not seasonally adjusted and thus do not take into account variations such as the winter holiday and summer vacation seasons.

Honolulu County’s unemployment rate fell to 3.0 percent in August from 3.2 percent in July; Hawaii County’s rate declined to 4.1 percent from 4.6 percent; Kauai County’s rate dropped to 3.4 percent from 3.5 percent; and Maui County’s rate slipped to 3.3 percent from 3.6 percent.

Within Maui County, Maui’s jobless rate fell to 3.2 percent from 3.4 percent, Molokai’s rate dropped to 7.9 percent from 9.4 percent and Lanai’s rate decreased to 5.8 percent from 6.7 percent.