Maui April unemployment rate drops to 4.3%

The non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Maui Island was 4.3% in April 2024, compared to 4.9% the previous month, and 2.6% at the same time in 2023. The data was included in a new report released today from the Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. 

The island of Molokaʻi has an unemployment rate of 4.5%, compared to 3.3% the month before, and 4.3% at the same time last year. The island of Lānaʻi had an unemployment rate of 3.5% in April, up from the previous month’s rate of 1.6%, and up from the 2.2% reported in April 2023. 

Combined, the three islands that make up Maui County had an unemployment rate of 4.3%, down from the 4.8% rate in March, and the 2.6% rate in April 2023.

The DBEDT today announced that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April was 3.1%, unchanged for four consecutive months. In April, 650,150 persons were employed and 20,850 were unemployed, for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 671,000 statewide. Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.9% in April, up from 3.8% in March.

The unemployment rate figures for the state of Hawai‘i and the US in this release are seasonally adjusted, in accordance with US Bureau of Labor Statistics methodology. The not-seasonally adjusted rate for the state was 2.8% in April, the same as in March.

In a separate measure of employment, total nonagricultural jobs decreased by 1,500 month-over-month, from March 2024 to April 2024. Job gains were experienced in Construction (+700); Private Education & Health Services (+700); Leisure & Hospitality (+500); Manufacturing (+100); and Trade, Transportation & Utilities (+100). Within Private Education & Health Services, job expansion was concentrated in Health Care & Social Assistance. Employment remained stable in Financial Activities.

Job losses occurred in Other Services (-300); Professional & Business Services (-400); and Information (-500). Within Information, there were job declines in Motion Picture & Video Production. Government employment went down by 2,400 jobs, primarily due to an above average seasonal release of workers in the Department of Education.

Year-over-year (April 2023 was the 37^th month of pandemic effects), nonfarm jobs have gone up by 2,100, or 0.3%. However, in comparison with March 2020 (the last month prior to pandemic effects), nonfarm jobs were down by 20,500, or -3.1%.