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Hawaii’s unemployment rate declined in June to a 15-month low of 7.7%, and nonfarm payrolls rose by 3,000 jobs, amid further signs that the state’s economy is on the mend.
The seasonally adjusted jobless rate declined three-tenths of a percentage point from a revised 8.0% in May and has now fallen for five consecutive months, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. The May number was revised lower from a previously reported 8.1%.
As recently as May 2020, the state’s unemployment rate stood at a record 21.9% during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This (downward trend in the unemployment rate) is mainly due to the reopening of Hawaii’s economy, especially in tourism,” DBEDT chief economist Eugene Tian said in an email. “Tourism recovery in February 2021 was 31% and in June 2021 was 84% from the same months in 2019. Given the current economic growth trend, Hawaii unemployment is expected to reach about 6% by the end of the year.”
Hawaii’s jobless rate, though, still trails the U.S. rate, which ticked up in June to 5.9% from 5.8%.
“This is due to the structure of our economy,” Tian said. “Hawaii depends on tourism more than any states in the U.S. Tourism is still recovering, especially international tourism. Tourism contributed about 17% of Hawaii’s economy in 2019 while only about 3% of the U.S. economy was from tourism.”
Hawaii’s declining unemployment rate is just one sign that the economy is improving. Other indications of the improving economy:
>> The state general excise tax revenue in June was 10% more than the same month in 2019.
>> The value of private building permits during the first five months of 2021 was 40% higher than the same period in 2019 and 60.9% higher than the same period in 2020.
>> Overall visitor recovery in June was 84% of the June 2019 level. For the domestic visitor count, June was 10% more than the count in June 2019.
>> Statewide bankruptcies plunged nearly 32% in June to 103 and represented the fewest cases for any June in 31 years.
In June’s unemployment data, the state’s labor force — which includes those who are employed, those who are unemployed but
actively seeking work and those who are self-employed — fell to 646,250 from 647,500 in May.
“While we see the labor force declining, employment is increasing and the job count is increasing,” Tian said. “The (labor force) numbers indicate that more people are discouraged and left the labor force. They might have either given up looking for jobs in the state or moved out of Hawaii.”
The number of people
employed rose to 596,500 — the highest since March 2020 — from 595,400.
Those unemployed declined to 49,750, the lowest since the beginning of the pandemic, from 52,100.
With domestic tourism rebounding strongly, the state’s leisure and hospitality sector continued showing the largest job gains with an increase in June of 2,500 over May. Construction was next with a gain of 1,000 jobs. Nonfarm payroll jobs are calculated from a mail survey of employers and are considered a better indicator of job growth because there is a larger sample size than the labor force data, which is compiled from a telephone survey of households.
The unemployment rate rose in the state’s four major counties in June from the previous month. State and national labor force data is adjusted for seasonal factors, but the county jobs data does not take into account variations such as the winter holiday and summer vacation seasons. The not seasonally adjusted jobless rates rose on most islands because of new graduates from colleges. May is a graduation season, and new graduates enter the labor market and are counted in the labor force.
Honolulu County’s jobless rate increased to 7.1% from 6.7%, Hawaii County’s rate rose to 7.9% from 7.3%, Kauai County’s rate ticked up to 11.2% from 11.1% and Maui County’s rate rose to 10.7% from 10.3%. In Maui County, Maui’s rate rose to 10.9% from 10.5%, and Molokai’s rate increased to 8.8% from 7.0%, but Lanai’s rate fell to 4.1% from 4.5%.
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