State’s Unemployment Rate Fell to 4.6% in June

The State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations announced today that Hawaii’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 4.6% last month, its lowest level since September 2008.

June’s unemployment rate was a decrease from May’s rate of 4.7%.

The state’s unemployment rate remains significantly lower than the national average. In June, the national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.6%, unchanged from May.

Statewide, there were 617,250 employed, up 1,500 from 615,750 in May. The number of unemployed decreased 900 from 30,600 in May to 29,700 in June. Together the figures represent a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 646,950 in Hawaii last month.

However, the non-seasonally adjusted rate for the state increased to 5.2% in June, up from 4.5% in May.

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

Table showing unemployment rates throughout the state. Image courtesy of DLIR.

Meanwhile, Hawaii County saw its unemployment rate increase a full percentage point last month from the preceding month, rising from 6.5% in May to 7.5% in June.

Although the Big Island had the highest unemployment rate of any county in the state last month, the number is still well below the island’s June 2012 unemployment rate of 9.6%.

Across the state last month, Oahu’s unemployment rate was 4.7%, while Maui County was 5.4% and Kauai County was 5.9%.

County and island rates of unemployment are not seasonally adjusted.