September unemployment rate remains at 2.9% for the state, 4% on Maui

The Hawai‘i State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism reports the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for September was 2.9%, the same for the fourth consecutive month. In September, 651,100 persons were employed and 19,300 were unemployed, for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 670,400 statewide. Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.1% in September, down from 4.2% in August.

The unemployment rate figures for the state of Hawai‘i and the US in the report are seasonally adjusted in accordance with US Bureau of Labor Statistics methodology. The not-seasonally adjusted rate for the state was 3.2% in September, the same as in August.

The county’s unemployment rate in September was 4%, compared to the 8.5% rate in September 2023, a month after the Maui wildfire disaster in early August last year. In August of this year, the county’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 4%.

Maui island’s unemployment rate in September was 4%, down from 8.9% a year earlier. Molokaʻi’s rate was 4% last month, up from 1.5% in September 2023, and Lānaʻi’s rate was 2.6%, up from 1.6% in September of last year.

In a separate measure of employment, total nonagricultural jobs increased by 800 month-over-month, from August 2024 to September 2024. Job gains were experienced in Leisure & Hospitality (+500); and Trade, Transportation & Utilities (+300). Employment in Manufacturing; Information; and Professional & Business Services remained unchanged. Job losses occurred in Construction (-100); Private Education & Health Services (-200); Other Services (-200); and Financial Activities (-300). Government employment went up by 800 jobs, mostly due to an above-average seasonal recall of workers in the Department of Education.

Year-over-year (September 2023 was the 42nd month of pandemic effects), nonfarm jobs have gone up by 9,000, or 1.4%. However, in comparison with March 2020 (the last month prior to pandemic effects), nonfarm jobs were down by 16,600, or -2.5%.