Unemployment Numbers Continue to Fall on Hawai‘i Island

Image table courtesy of DLIR.

The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) has released statistics indicating Hawai‘i County’s unemployment rate is continuing to decline.

The unemployment rate as measured in March 2017, for Hawai‘i Island (not seasonally adjusted) was 3.1 percent, down from 3.8 percent during the same period last year. The employment rate for Hawai‘i County in February this year was 3.3 percent.

The trend is also reflected statewide in Hawai‘i. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in March was 2.7 percent, according to DLIR. The last time the state’s unemployment rate was 2.7 percent was in June 2007. That percentage represents 19,100 unemployed and 677,700 employed individuals throughout the Islands–a seasonally adjusted total labor force of 696,800.

“Hawai‘i’s economy continues to perform well with employment at historical highs and unemployment rates at near-record lows,” said Linda Chu Takayama, director of the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.  

Nationwide, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in March, compared to 4.7 percent in February.

The unemployment numbers for the State of Hawai‘i and the U.S. (as shown in the table) are seasonally adjusted, in accordance with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) methodology. The not seasonally adjusted rate for the State of Hawai‘i was 2.6 percent in March, compared to 2.8 percent in February 2017.