Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Bank of Hawaii's chief economist says
the low rate is a result of the state's
current economic expansion

High-tech job fair seeks Hawaii-connected

---

By Rob Perez
Star-Bulletin

Hawaii's jobless rate in November fell to 3.7 percent, the lowest level in about eight years, the state reported today.

Underscoring a fairly broad-based improvement in the job market here, the seasonally unadjusted November rate was the lowest since January 1992, when 3.5 percent of Hawaii's working-age population was unemployed, according to Rey Domingo, research statistician for the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

The November number fell slightly from October's 3.8 percent and was down substantially from the year-earlier rate of 5.1 percent, the state data show.

More significantly, the year-to-date unemployment average for 2000 -- at 4.3 percent -- is down substantially from the 5.6 percent for all of 1999 and even better than the 6 percent-plus numbers from 1998 and 1997.

Domingo said the improving job market has affected all industries except what the department classifies as the finance, insurance and real estate industry. Banks especially have been hit by layoffs in that sector.

Paul Brewbaker, chief economist for the Bank of Hawaii, said the last time Hawaii's jobless rate was falling into such a low range was around 1987. In 1992, the rate was heading up.

The significance of the 1987 comparison is that the state's economy back then was several years into an economic expansion -- something that fits the current situation, Brewbaker said.

"People are only really just catching on to the fact that the first two or three years of expansion have already passed us by," he said.

Because the labor supply isn't expected to keep pace with Hawaii's ongoing economic expansion, Brewbaker and other economists expect a worker shortage in certain skilled trades to broaden into other sectors in 2001.

That's good news for job seekers but not so good for businesses, Brewbaker said.

Hawaii's 3.7 percent unemployment rate compares with a 3.8 percent rate, also on a seasonally unadjusted basis, for the nation in November. The U.S. number on a seasonally adjusted basis was 4 percent.

The improvement in Hawaii's jobless rate last month was driven by seasonal hiring, particularly as retailers prepared for the holiday season, Domingo said.