State unemployment
rate at 6 percent

Star-Bulletin staff

Hawaii's unemployment rate was 6 percent in January, a better performance than the 6.2 percent jobless rate reported for January 1998 but an increase from December's 5.4 percent.

The U.S. jobless rate was 4.8 percent in January.

In Hawaii, there were 36,200 persons unemployed in the islands in January, 400 fewer than the 36,600 reported for January 1998.

However, the number of jobs was down, according to figures from the state Department of Labor & Industrial Relations.

A job count, produced in a separate survey of employers, showed there were 524,600 nonagriculture jobs in January, a drop of 1,500 from 526,100 in the previous January.

Economists look at the job count as a more reliable indicator of the condition of the economy than the unemployment percentage. Jobs are counted by a survey of a large number of business while jobless people are counted in a much smaller household survey.

Comparing January with results from December, the labor department said retailing was down by 2,800 jobs as shops returned to normal after the holidays. Temporary-help agencies cut 400 jobs in January.

Oahu's jobless rate was unchanged from a year earlier at 5.3 percent. The other major islands showed improvements. The Big Island was at 8.7 percent, down from 9 percent a year earlier. Kauai's January rate was 9 percent, down from 10.2 percent; Maui was at 6.4 percent, down from 7 percent; and Molokai was at 11.2 percent, down from 15.1 percent.

All islands had increases in their jobless rates from December to January, partly because of the end of holiday-season jobs in the retailing industry.