Hawaii unemployment rate drops to 3.3%
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / MARCH 30
Job-seekers and businesses looking for new hires meet at the Star-Advertiser Career Expo 2016 on March 30 at the Blaisdell Center.
Hawaii’s unemployment rate fell for the second straight month and dipped one-tenth of a percentage point in September to 3.3 percent, according to data released today by the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.
The state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate is now at its lowest level since hitting 3.2 percent in both April and May.
Total nonfarm payroll jobs inched up last month to 653,200 from 653,000 in August. The nonfarm payroll jobs figure includes people who might hold multiple jobs but doesn’t include people who are self-employed.
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, rose to 687,500 from 684,600 in August.
There were 665,000 people employed in September, up from 661,050 the previous month, while the number of unemployed fell to 22,550 from 23,550.
2 responses to “Hawaii unemployment rate drops to 3.3%”
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Will we ever see a living wage?
If wages go up, more automation kicks in?
Really depends on which sectors of the local economy. Generally, jobs requiring more education and specialized training or Masters+, or professional degrees have been doing pretty well as far as salaries. I don’t think we’ll ever see the day where large numbers of wage-earners with high school or less will have middle or upper-middle class lifestyles again. We have moved into a knowledge-information-technical skills based economy from the old manufacturing/agrarian based economy.