Hawaii recently marked its top air travel day since COVID-19 concerns erupted a year ago. On Saturday, upwards of 21,400 trans-Pacific travelers underwent Safe Travels screening. It’s likely that much of this spring-break bump is due to a combination of low infection counts here and pent-up travel demand.

While travel is not expected to match the pre-pandemic pace anytime soon, let’s hope that the rebound continues — and brings back more jobs. That picture is much improved since the state’s unemployment rate soared to 22% last spring. However, with the latest figures — 10.2% in January — Hawaii continues to hold the highest jobless rate in the nation.