Hawaii unemployment jumped to 7.4 percent in May, or more than double the rate just 12 months earlier, the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations reported.

The increase in the seasonally adjusted rate was the highest in more than 30 years and marked a 0.5 percentage point increase from April, when joblessness was 6.9 percent.
Hawaii’s unemployment rate has shot up as job losses sweep the country because of an economic downturn. Japan’s sluggish economy, the H1N1 flu and other factors are contributing to lower tourism counts and construction work in the state.
The state noted Hawaii’s rate compared to national unemployment of 9.4 percent and that the local rate was lower than the U.S. average by 2 percentage points for a second consecutive month.
The state Labor Department also reported non-seasonally adjusted rates for each island that showed all experienced a surge in joblessness over the past year. Honolulu’s 6.0 percent unemployment compared with 3.2 percent a year earlier. The Neighbor Island rates were higher than Oçahu.
Hawaii County, Kauai, Molokai and Lanai all recorded double-digit unemployment at 10.4 percent, 10.3 percent, 13.6 percent and 11.5 percent, respectively.
On each of those islands the levels were more than twice what they were a year earlier.
Maui’s rate of 9.0 percent compared with 3.5 percent in May 2008