Maui Sees Lowest Unemployment Rate in County

The April 2016 unemployment rate for Maui County decreased .2% from March 2016—down from 3.4% to 3.2%, and down from last year’s April figure of 3.9% (not seasonally adjusted), the Hawai‘i State Department of Labor & Industrial Relations reported today.

The Island of Maui experienced the lowest unemployment in the county at 3%. Last month’s figure was 3.3%; last Aprils’s statistic was 3.7%.

Moloka‘i’s unemployment rate for April was up slightly from the previous month, increasing to 5.9% from March’s 5.6%, but still significantly lower than the April 2015 figure of 8.8%.

Lāna‘i experienced the highest unemployment rate in the county at 9%, which is a significant increase from last month’s 5.3%. April 2015 statistics showed unemployment at 5.5%.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the State of Hawai‘i in April was 3.2%, up from 3.1% in March.

Statewide, 667,950 were employed and 21,900 unemployed in April for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 689,850.

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5% in April, the same as in March.

Both initial claims and weeks claims decreased by 47 or -3.5% and 1,399 or -17.1% respectively for unemployment benefits compared to one year ago.

Over-the-month, both initial claims and weeks claims increased by 4.5% and 3.3% respectively from March 2016.

The unemployment rate figures for Hawai‘i and the US are seasonally adjusted, in accordance with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics methodology.

The not seasonally adjusted rate for the state was 3.% in April, down from 3.2% in March.

In a separate measure of employment, in April over March, there was a decline of 4,900 total nonagricultural jobs.

Within major industry sectors, there were job gains in Leisure & Hospitality (+800) and Educational & Health Services (+200) sectors.

Job losses were experienced in Other Services (-100), Manufacturing (-200), Financial Activities (-200), Construction (-300), Trade, Transportation, & Utilities (-600, and Professional & Business Services (-2,000) sectors.

The bulk of the drop in Professional & Business Services occurred in Administrative/Support/Waste Management/Remediation Services.

Government employment decreased by 2,500 jobs, largely as a result of seasonal fluctuation at the Department of Education.

Compared with April 2015, total non-farm jobs have risen by 12,600, or 2%.

Seasonal Adjustment
The seasonal fluctuations in the number of employed and unemployed persons reflect hiring and layoff patterns that accompany regular events such as the winter holiday season and the summer vacation season.

These variations make it difficult to tell whether month-to-month changes in employment and unemployment are due to normal seasonal patterns or to changing economic conditions. Therefore, the BLS uses a statistical technique called seasonal adjustment to address these issues. This technique uses the history of the labor force data and the job count data to identify the seasonal movements and to calculate the size and direction of these movements.

A seasonal adjustment factor is then developed and applied to the estimates to eliminate the effects of regular seasonal fluctuations on the data. Seasonally adjusted statistical series enable more meaningful data comparisons between months or with an annual average.