Hawai'i employers paid $1.57 per $100 of payroll for workers compensation costs in 2003, 26 percent more than the national average, according to a study published by the National Academy of Social Insurance. Nationally employers paid $1.16 per $100 of payroll.

Hawai'i workers compensation costs rose 2.6 percent in 2003 from the previous year, compared with a 3.2 percent increase nationally.

"While it's encouraging that our costs for 2003 grew at a slower rate than the rest of the nation, it will continue to mean nothing as long as Hawai'i's employers continue to pay some of the highest costs in the nation," the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said in a press release. "This report again highlights the serious need to improve the quality of medical care in Hawai'i's workers compensation system, which will result in lower workers' comp costs borne by Hawai'i's employers."

BancWest earnings up 30% in second quarter

BancWest Corp., parent company of Bank of the West and First Hawaiian Bank, today reported net income of $149.1 million for the second quarter of 2005, up 30 percent from the same quarter last year.

For the first six months of 2005, BancWest's net income was $285.8 million, up 25.4 percent from the previous year.

"Continued organic growth, plus the impact of last year's acquisitions of Community First Bank and Union Safe Deposit Bank, produced yet another earnings record for BancWest," said Don McGrath, president and chief executive officer of BancWest. BancWest is a wholly owned subsidiary of Paris-based BNP Paribas.

Hawai'i unemployment rate steady at 2.7% in June

Hawai'i's unemployment rate held steady at 2.7 percent in June, below the national average of 5.0 percent, the State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said today.

Since January 2004, Hawai'i's monthly seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has been at least two percentage points lower than the national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate.