Maui County jobless rate drops to 2.5% in September

State economists report that Maui County’s unemployment fell 1.5 percentage points from 4% to 2.5% in September.

For Maui island, the jobless rate went down from 4% to 2.3%. Moloka‘i increased from 4.1% to 5.9%; and Lānaʻi slid from 2.6% to 2.2%.

The Hawai‘i State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism announced Wednesday that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for September was 2.5%, compared to 2.7% in August. In September, 669,850 persons were employed and 17,200 were unemployed, for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 687,000 statewide. Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.4% in September, up from 4.3% in August.

For other counties in the state, the City and County of Honolulu posted a 2.2% jobless rate in September, down from 3% a year earlier. Hawai‘i County’s unemployment was 2.5%, off from 3.6%; and Kaua‘i County had a unemployment rate of 2.2% in September, down from 2.8% a year ago. The county jobless rates are not seasonally adjusted. However, the overall Hawai‘i state and US rates are seasonally adjusted.

In a separate measure of employment, total nonagricultural jobs decreased by 100 month over month, from August 2025 to September 2025. Job gains were experienced in Leisure & Hospitality (+1,000); Other Services (+500); and Construction (+100).

Within the Leisure & Hospitality sector, the rise was primarily due to a smaller August-September seasonal decline in Food Services & Drinking Places. Employment remained unchanged in Manufacturing; Trade, Transportation & Utilities; Information; Financial Activities; and Private Education & Health Services.

Job losses occurred in Professional & Business Services (-1,100). Within the Professional & Business grouping, most of the contraction was in the Professional, Scientific, & Technical Services subsector. Government employment went down by 600 jobs, with the over-the-month drop exclusively attributed to less seasonal hiring at the Department of Education and the University of Hawaiʻi system. Year over year, non-farm jobs have gone up by 9,500, or 1.5 percent.