Posted on: Tuesday, December 25, 2001

Hawai'i unemployment rate rises to 5.5 percent

Associated Press

Unemployment in Hawai'i rose in November — increasing for the second consecutive month since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — to 5.5 percent, the highest figure in more than two years, state labor officials said yesterday.

The increase was 0.3 of a percentage point higher than October's figure of 5.2 percent, and 0.2 of a point higher than the national rate of 5.3 for November, according to the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Nearly 34,000 people in Hawai'i were unemployed in November, 45 percent more than the 23,300 people who were without jobs in November 2000.

Although jobless rates rose for the second month in a row in November, the increase was not as drastic as increases from September to October, when Hawai'i's unemployment rate jumped 0.7 of a percentage point, from 4.5 percent to 5.2 percent, or by 4,500 people, following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The last time the unemployment rate was higher than 5.5 percent was in August 1999, when 5.8 percent, were unemployed.

Hawai'i's average unemployment rate had been decreasing since the mid-1990s, from 6.4 percent in 1996 and 1997 to 6.2 percent in 1998, 5.6 percent in 1999 and 4.3 percent in 2000.

Jobs lost in the hotel, transportation and retail sectors were offset by increases in government and education jobs, a net increase of 1,000 jobs, the labor department said. The state government added 3,400 jobs, mostly in the Department of Education and the University of Hawai'i, and private education increased by 300 jobs.

O'ahu's unemployment rate rose 0.5 of a percentage point, to 5.2 percent, the lowest in the state. Lana'i's unemployment rate fell 2.8 points to 8 percent, the highest in the state. The Big Island's jobless rate remained steady at 6.8 percent; Moloka'i's rate fell 2 points to 6.7 percent; Kaua'i's rate declined 0.4 of a point to 6.6 percent, and Maui declined 0.4 of a point to 5.6 percent.