Hawaiçi sustained a marginal rise in unemployment in December, with the jobless rate rising to 6.9 percent, or 0.1 percentage points more than November.

Unemployment numbers released by U.S. Department of Labor this morning show there were 44,300 people who were without jobs during the month. That was an increase of 600 over November’s count.
Hawaiçi’s unemployment rate has been in the high 6 percent to low 7 percent range during the current economic downturn and has been forecast to move higher this year.
The state’s rate has been below the national rate and continued to be so in December, when the U.S. average was 10.0 percent.
The rate released by the Labor Department was a preliminary figure and is subject to revision. It initially had reported a November jobless figure of 7.0 percent for November but has since revised it to 6.8 percent.