Updated at 12:31 p.m., Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Hawai'i 2% December jobless rate lowest in 30 years
Advertiser Staff
Hawai'i's unemployment rate fell to a 30-year low of 2 percent in December, providing more evidence the state's economic expansion remains solidly on track.The jobless rate, which dropped from 2.3 percent in November on a seasonally adjusted basis, is the lowest rate since the state began calculating the number 30 years ago, the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations announced.
For all of 2006, the state's unemployment rate averaged 2.6 percent.
On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, Kaua'i and Maui counties had the lowest December unemployment rates at 1.5 percent. The rate in Honolulu County was 1.6 percent and Hawai'i County recorded a jobless rate of 1.9 percent.
Nationally, the December unemployment rate remained unchanged at a seasonally adjusted 4.5 percent in December. After Hawaii, the state with the next lowest unemployment rate was Utah at 2.6 percent. Alaska's 6.7 percent unemployment rate was the highest in the nation.
