Retail cuts send state jobless rate up

By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i's jobless rate rose to 3.4 percent in March from a 12-year-low of 3 percent the month before on a larger-than-usual decline in retail trade jobs.

Roughly 300 retail jobs were lost in March, about twice the number usually expected from seasonal layoffs following the winter shopping season, the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations reported yesterday.

An additional 50 jobs were lost in the air transportation sector of the economy. However, overall visitor-related industries fared well despite the war in Iraq and concerns about severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

Those losses were partially offset by the addition of 200 jobs in the accommodations, food services and transportation/warehousing sectors of the economy in March, when Hawai'i's jobless rate remained well below the nationwide average of 6.2 percent.

"It is especially encouraging that we have not sustained any significant job losses in visitor-related industries," said Nelson Befitel, labor department director.

March's jobless rate was also below the year-ago rate of 4.3 percent when many businesses were experiencing the after-effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Among the islands, Lana'i posted the lowest unemployment rate at 1.6 percent, which was down from 3.3 percent in March 2002. Honolulu's jobless rate fell to 3 percent from 4 percent over the same time period.

On the Big Island, March's jobless rate fell to 5.1 percent from 5.3 percent in the year before, while Maui County's rate, which includes Lana'i, dropped to 3.5 percent from 4.5 percent. Kaua'i's rate dropped to 4.4 percent from 5.6 percent.

During March, 19,900 workers were unemployed and 572,300 had jobs, compared with 17,700 who were jobless and 576,400 people with jobs in February.

Economists consider the state unemployment rate as a rough measure of economic health but say it is better viewed as a way to track trends over time.