Hawai‘i County Sees 2.9% Unemployment in December 2018

Unemployment in Hawai‘i County dropped slightly during December to 2.9% according to the latest data released by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. DLIR reported the county’s unemployment rate at 3.3% during November 2018.

Table courtesy of DLIR.

Statewide the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for December was 2.5% compared to 2.4% in November. Statewide, 666,500 were employed and 16,900 unemployed in December for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 683,400. Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.9% in December, compared to 3.7% in November.

Both Initial claims and weeks claims decreased by 38 or -3.0% and 721 or -9.4% respectively for unemployment benefits compared to one year ago. Over-the-month both initial claims and weeks claims increased by 10.0% and 0.2% in December.

The unemployment rate figures for the State of Hawai‘i and the U.S. in this release are seasonally adjusted, in accordance with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) methodology. The not seasonally adjusted rate for the state was 2.3% in December, compared to 2.6% in November.