Hawai‘i unemployment rate at 2.3% in February

Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism reports that seasonally adjusted unemployment for February ticked slightly up to 2.3% compared with 2.2% in January.

There were 672,150 people employed and 15,650 unemployed in February for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 687,850 statewide. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.4% for the nation in February, up slightly from 4.3% in January.

Unemployment rate figures for the state and United States in this release are seasonally adjusted in accordance with U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics methodology.

The not-seasonally adjusted rate for the state was 2.3% in February, an increase compared with 2.1% in January.

Industry payroll employment

In a separate measure of employment, total nonagricultural jobs increased by 400 from January to February.

Job gains were experienced in:

• Trade, transportation and utilities (+500).
• Construction (+200).
• Leisure and hospitality (+100).

Employment remained unchanged in:

• Manufacturing.
• Information.
• Financial activities.

Job losses occurred in:

• Professional and business services (-100).
• Private education and health services (-200).
• Other services (-300).

NOTE: Government employment went up by 200 jobs. Nonfarm jobs increased by 2,100, or 0.3%, from 2025.

Hawai`i Seasonally Adjusted Labor Force Data**

* benchmarked data; **totals might not add because of rounding.

Unemployment Rates (%)

County and island rates are not seasonally adjusted; * benchmarked data.

Notes about seasonal adjustment

Seasonal fluctuations in the number of employed and unemployed people reflect hiring and layoff patterns accompanying regular events such as the winter holiday season and summer vacation season.

These variations make it difficult to tell whether month-to-month changes in employment and unemployment are because of normal seasonal patterns or to changing economic conditions. Therefore, seasonal adjustment is used to address these issues.

This technique uses the history of labor force data and job count data to identify the seasonal movements and calculate size and direction of these movements.

A seasonal adjustment factor is then developed and applied to the estimates to eliminate the effects of regular seasonal fluctuations on the data.

Seasonally adjusted statistical series enable more meaningful data comparisons between months or with an annual average.