Maui’s unemployment drops to 7.4% for October 2023, but up from 3.7% a year ago

The unemployment rate on Maui dropped from 8.6% in September to 7.4% in October, according to data from the Hawai‘i State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

But Maui still has not totally bounced back from the job losses due to the August fires. A year ago in October, Mauiʻs unemployment was only 3.7%.

On Molokaʻi, the unemployment rate remained steady at 1.5% (and much lower than the 7.9% a year ago). The rate dropped from 1.6% to a super low .8% on Lānaʻi.

For the State of Hawaiʻi, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for October was 2.9%, up .1% from September. In October, 655,800 persons were employed and 19,400 were unemployed, for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 675,200 statewide.

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.9% in October, up from 3.8% in September.

The unemployment rate figures for the State of Hawai‘i and the United States in this report are seasonally adjusted, in accordance with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ methodology. The not-seasonally adjusted rate for the state was 3.1% in October, compared to 3.3% in September.

In a separate measure of employment:

• Total nonagricultural jobs increased by 900 month-over-month, from September 2023 to October 2023.
• Job gains were experienced in Private Education & Health Services (+1,000); Professional & Business Services (+200); Manufacturing (+100); and Information (+100).
• Within Private Education & Health Services, the most prominent sub-sector expansion was in Social Assistance and Hospitals.
• Job losses occurred in Trade, Transportation & Utilities (-100); Financial Activities (-100); Other Services (-100); Leisure & Hospitality (-200); and Construction (-500).
• Government employment went up by 500 jobs, with a rise in all branches (federal, state and local).
• Year-over-year (October 2022 was the 31^st month of pandemic effects), non-farm jobs have gone up by 6,600 or 1.1%. However, in comparison with March 2020 (the last month prior to pandemic effects), non-farm jobs were down by 21,300 or -3.3%.