Hawai'i employment rate reaches record 606,000

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

More Hawai'i residents were employed in April than ever before as a rebounding tourism industry and housing boom gave the state the best job growth in the country and dropped unemployment down to 3.6 percent.

Some 606,000 people were employed in April, beating out the record set last January of 603,200. The state has added 13,100 jobs in the past 12 months, an increase of 2.3 percent.

Emy Yamauchi-Wong, manager of clerical staffing for Altres Staffing of Honolulu, has seen the market shift steadily in favor of job seekers.

"It's definitely an employee's market," said Yamauchi-Wong.

"There are more jobs open now than we've seen in the past two years."

The total number of jobs climbed 0.8 percent in April from March, giving Hawai'i the fastest job growth in the nation.

The state's unemployment rate for April was 2 percentage points below the national rate of 5.6 percent.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.