Maui County Unemployment Drops to 6.1%

Courtesy of the Hawaii Dept. of Labor and Industrial Relations.

By Sonia Isotov

The Hawai‘i Department of Labor & Industrial Relations announced today that the “not-seasonally” adjusted unemployment rate for Maui County for August was 6.1%, down from 7.9% one year ago and 6.7% one month ago.

On Maui, the not-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August 2012 went even lower to 5.9%, compared to 7.6% one year ago, and 6.4% one month ago, July 2012.

Statewide, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August 2012 was 6.1%, down from the revised rate of 6.3% in July 2012. The last time Hawaii had an unemployment rate as low as 6.1% was in January 2009, during the early stages of the great recession.

Statewide, there were 601,350 employed and 38,900 unemployed in August 2012, for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 640,250.

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.1%, a 0.2% decline from 8.3% in July 2012, and down from 9.1% one year ago.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits were down 13.3% and total weeks claimed were down 12% compared to one year ago. Initial claims and weeks claimed decreased by 11% and 7% between July and August, respectively.

In a separate statewide measure of employment, total seasonally adjusted non-agricultural jobs increased by 4,100 jobs in August over July, and by 14,100 jobs over-the-year.

Photo courtesy of Workforce Development Division, DLIR.

Within industry sectors, August over July employment gains were experienced in education and health services (+1,100), construction (+800), leisure  and hospitality (+700), professional and business services (+500), government (+500), trade, transportation, and utilities (+400), financial activities (+200), and manufacturing (+100).

Job gains in education and health services primarily occurred in health services, specifically in social assistance and in ambulatory health care services. Construction employment rose in good part due to special trade construction projects located on Oahu.

Leisure and hospitality benefited from strong hiring in food services and drinking places. Over-the-month job losses occurred in other services (-400).

Over-the-year, the private industries with the largest job gains were leisure and hospitality (+5,400), trade, transportation, and utilities (+3,100), and professional and business services (+1.400).