Hawai'i jobless rate falls to 4 percent
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Hawai'i's unemployment rate dropped to 4 percent in October, significantly below the national rate of 5.3 percent, the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said yesterday.
Last month's jobless rate was down 1.3 percentage points from October of last year and 0.3 percentage points from September.
Since the start of the year, Hawai'i's unemployment rate has been below 5 percent while the national rate has been above 5 percent, the department said.
The statewide labor force in October was comprised of 567,800 employed and 23,500 unemployed.
There was a net increase of 4,200 jobs in the nonagricultural job count, mostly because of seasonal employment in education, the department said. Public education added 4,000 jobs and private education gained 600 jobs, it said.
Meanwhile, nonmilitary federal employment expanded by 600 jobs, primarily because of airport security work being transferred to the Transportation Security Administration, the department said.
A few sectors experienced job losses last month, with eating and drinking establishments losing 400 jobs, and nondurable goods manufacturing trimming 200 jobs, it said.
Hawai'i County had the highest jobless rate among counties of 5.3 percent for the month; Honolulu County had the lowest at 3.6 percent.
Kaua'i County's jobless rate was 4.8 percent; the jobless rate for Maui County (which includes Maui, Moloka'i and Lana'i) was 4.3 percent.
