Hawaii jobless rate is lowest in the nation again

Hawaii officially has the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

And it’s not even close.

For the second month in a row, Hawaii is No. 1 after ending November with a 2 percent seasonally adjusted rate that is the lowest in state history. North Dakota is second at 2.6 percent and is followed by Nebraska and New Hampshire at 2.7 percent and Colorado, Idaho, Iowa and Vermont tied at 2.9 percent.

Alaska has the highest jobless rate at 7.2 percent.

Hawaii’s 2 percent rate, which was announced Thursday by the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, was down two-tenths of a percentage point from 2.2 percent in October when it also was the lowest in the nation.

Altogether, 17 states had unemployment rates in November that were lower than the U.S. figure of 4.1 percent.

Hawaii’s unemployment rate in October marked the first time the state had the distinction of having the lowest unemployment rate in the U.S. since November 2006 when it was at 2.4 percent, followed by Utah at 2.5 percent.

In December 2006 both Hawaii and Utah were both at 2.4 percent.

Hawaii had the lowest — or was tied for the lowest — unemployment rate for all states for every month from May 2004 through December 2006.

Besides Hawaii, states also hitting all-time lows in November were Alabama (3.5 percent), California (4.6 percent), Mississippi (4.8 percent) and Texas (3.8 percent).

Since its recent peak of 7.3 percent in 2009 during the recession, the jobless rate in Hawaii has been steadily dropping. The last time it was 3 percent was September 2016, and the last time it hit 4 percent was February 2015.