The September 11th attack
State unemployment filings may be at record levels

By Susan Hooper
Advertiser Staff Writer

The line of applicants at the state unemployment office is expected to grow even longer as the tourism industry slowdown hits retailers. Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

"If you go back and look at the statistics, even during the Gulf War, there was nothing this quick and this fast," said Tom Jackson, a spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. "It is kind of unprecedented."

A final tally of this week's filings won't be available until Monday. For the four days through Thursday, 3,845 workers had filed for unemployment benefits, according to preliminary figures.

On Monday alone, 1,317 people applied for benefits in the state — nearly the volume of an entire week prior to Sept. 11.

The average number of weekly filings before the disaster was 1,400.

And the numbers may continue to grow next week as the fallout from reduced air travel hits the state and more companies downsize to try to cope with the sharp downturn in tourism.

State labor officials have been estimating that 80 percent of the 7,499 unemployment claims filed Sept. 17-27 are by people in the tourism industry who have been laid off or had their hours cut.

Yesterday, two more Hawai'i companies announced a total of 580 layoffs and furloughs that will swell the ranks of those out of work: Hawaiian Airlines said it will lay off 430 employees and Atlantis Adventures said it reduced its work force by 150 people.

Jackson, of the labor department, said he hopes the unemployment claims start to abate, but he also fears that those in other industries will start to be laid off or have their hours cut.

"We're seeing a lot of the visitor industries right now, but the trickle-down is going to be the retail," he said. "What's scaring us right now is when this trickle-down starts. We don't know what kind of numbers we'll be looking at."

From Sept. 17 to Sept. 22 — the first full week following the terrorist attacks, 3,654 people applied for first-time unemployment benefits, the labor department said yesterday. That's just under four times as many as the 915 first-time claims filed in the week ended Sept. 23, 2000, the department said.

The majority of the filings were on O'ahu, where 2,172 people applied for benefits from Monday to Thursday. On Maui, 733 people applied for benefits over the four days; on the Big Island, 732 applied; and on Kaua'i, 208 people applied.

During the week ending Sept. 30 last year, 846 people filed for unemployment, the labor department figures show. That means more than four times as many people filed for unemployment in the first four days of the same week this year.

Industry experts say that, in a crisis such as this, labor is generally the first cost to be cut.

"The immediate response for a lot of businesses was how to cut their costs, and the most direct cost has been labor and that translates to employees," said Brian Tamamoto, managing director of Honolulu consulting firm Human Resources Solutions. "What they have in inventory they have no choice (but to pay for). And everything else, like electricity, water, rental — those are all fixed costs."

Reach Susan Hooper at shooper@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8064.