Jobless rate in isles
falls to 3.7 percent

The drop keeps Hawaii well below
the national average of 6.5 percent

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Hawaii's unemployment rate dropped to 3.7 percent of the work force in January, from 4.9 percent a year earlier.

The numbers in the state monthly announcement are not seasonally adjusted, meaning they don't account for such oddities as layoffs in retailing in January after high staffing over the holidays, or schools rehiring in the new year.

But they do show a fairly steady decline over the past year with Hawaii doing better than the nation as a whole.

The national non-seasonally adjusted level of unemployment last month was 6.5 percent, up from 6.3 percent the previous January and nearly three percentage points above the Hawaii rate.

Hawaii's seasonally adjusted number in January was 3.6 percent unemployed, down from a seasonally adjusted 4.9 percent a year earlier. Hawaii's trend by both measures was better than the nation's.

The U.S. seasonally adjusted figure for January was 5.7 percent unemployed, up slightly from 5.6 percent in January 2002.

Economists say an important number is growth in the number of jobs available. The latest state figures show 560,000 non-agriculture jobs in Hawaii during January, up 3.3 percent from a revised 542,100 in January 2002.

"So there has been some job growth," said Leroy Laney, a professor of economics at Hawaii Pacific University.

But Laney said the relationship between jobs and the number of people seeking them might be skewed by "discouraged workers," who lost their jobs after 9/11 and have given up trying to find a job.

"In order to be counted (in the work force) you have to be looking for a job," or already in a job, he said.

The Hawaii work force, those who hold jobs plus those who are seeking them, rose 1.4 percent to 597,050 in January from 588,900 a year earlier.

But the labor force had been down in December and now has risen slightly even as unemployment is down.

"It looks like good news," Laney said.

The number of people in jobs during January was 575,100, an increase of 2.7 percent from 560,000 in January 2002. A total of 21,900 people were out of work during the month, compared to 28,900 in January 2002.

Among the individual islands in the not-seasonally adjusted state survey, Molokai was the only one to show an increase in unemployment, to 7.6 percent last month from 6.3 percent in January 2002.

The Big Island, at 5 percent, improved from 5.9 percent a year earlier. Kauai followed at 4.6 percent, but that was an improvement from 6.6 percent in the previous January.

Maui was at 3.6 percent in January, down from a year-earlier 5.1 percent and Oahu at 3.4 percent was down from 4.6 percent.

Lanai reported a 1.6 percent unemployment level, down from 5.1 percent in January 2002.