DLIR: Big Island Unemployment Rate Drops

Hawai’i’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped slightly in July to 3.7 percent, down three-tenths of a percent from 4 percent in June.

The Hawai’i State Department of Labor & Industrial Relations announced the drop Thursday, noting that the last time the Hawai’i unemployment rate was at or below 3.7 was in April 2008, when the rate was 3.6 percent.

Throughout the state, 648,050 individuals were employed in July, while 24,750 individuals were listed an unemployed. These number make up a total seasonally adjusted labor force number of 672,800.

The nationwide unemployment rate in July was 5.3 percent, the same rate as June.

Initial unemployment claims have decreased by about 13 percent and weeks claimed have decreased by about 23.5 percent, compared to the same time a year ago. Over the month of July, initial claims decreased by 5.6 percent, while weeks claimed decreased by 1.5 percent in the past month.

The figures above represent seasonally adjusted unemployment rate figures. The non-seasonal adjusted rate for Hawai’i was 3.3 percent in July, down from 4.4 percent in June.

This chart shows not seasonally adjusted unemployment rates in State of Hawai’i counties. DLIR image.

On the Big Island, non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates were 4.2 percent in July, a drop by over an entire percentage point from 5.5 percent in June and an even bigger drop compared to the unemployment rate one year ago at 5.8 percent.

DLIR reports that a decline of 2,000 non-agricultural jobs was seen in July. Compared to one year ago, an expansion of 7,800 non-agricultural jobs has been seen.

Statewide, the DLIR says that job expansion was seen in two sectors: construction (+400) and other services (+300).

In addition to the employment gains, employment loss was seen in various other sectors, including manufacturing (-100), educational & health services (-100), trade, transportation & utilities (-200), financial activities (-200), leisure & hospitality (-400), professional & business services (-900), and government sectors, including federal (-300), state (-100) and local (-400).