Number of jobs in state hits new high

By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer

A tourism industry buoyed by Mainland visitors, a pre-concrete workers-strike construction boom and a still hot real-estate market helped generate the highest number of jobs Hawai'i has ever seen last month.

The number of people employed in the state reached a high of 603,200 in January, eclipsing the record set just one month earlier of 599,700, the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said. The January job market exceeded December in part because the state Department of Education ramped up employment after the winter break.

As the number of jobs grew, Hawai'i's unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 3.9 percent, compared with December's unemployment rate of 4.4 percent. The national jobless rate was 5.6 percent in January.

The January numbers continue a trend that started either early last year or in late 2002 when tourism, construction and real estate began to lift the Hawai'i economy out of its post-Sept. 11, 2001, slump.

Hawai'i has become one of the brighter spots for job creation nationwide — a marked difference from much of the 1990s, when the national economy expanded and Hawai'i's treaded water.

On a year-to-year basis, the number of jobs statewide rose 1.6 percent, or 9,300, as the trade, education, leisure and government sectors of the economy all added jobs.

January's unemployment rate was level with the January 2003 rate of 3.9 percent.

Honolulu's jobless rate stood at 3.5 percent, compared with 3.4 percent a year ago.

On the Big Island, January's jobless rate was 5.2 percent, versus 5 percent the year before. Maui County, which includes Lana'i, recorded a jobless rate of 3.8 percent, up from 3.7 percent in January 2003. Kaua'i's rate dropped to 4.5 percent from 4.6 percent a year ago period. Moloka'i's rate was 7.7 percent compared with 7.6 percent a year ago.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8093.