State jobless rate
falls to 4.7%

February's rate showed a
big jump from a year ago but
improved slightly from January

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

February's unemployment rate in Hawaii dropped to 4.7 percent, worse than the 4.1 percent rate a year earlier, but a small improvement from January's 4.8 percent.

It also hung on to remain 1.4 points better than the national average of 6.1 percent. It was the third month in a row in which the Hawaii rate was lower than the national rate, according to figures released yesterday by the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

There were 28,600 people out of work in the islands last month, but that was a significant improvement over the November peak of 34,600 out of work, or 5.6 percent of the labor force.

The Big Island, Kauai and Molokai showed lower unemployment rates than a year ago, with Oahu, Maui and Lanai coming in higher, the department said.

Oahu had a 4.4 percent jobless rate last month, up from a year-earlier 3.6 percent.

The Big Island had 5.6 percent of its work force not working last month, down from 6.3 percent in February 2001.

Kauai's 6.5 percent rate was higher than the rest of the state but was still down from a year-earlier 7 percent.

Maui came in at 5.1 percent out of work, up from 3.8 percent in February 2001.

Molokai dropped to 5.2 percent from 15.6 percent a year earlier and Lanai reported a 3.6 jobless rate, the lowest in the state but still higher than its year-earlier 3.4 percent level.

The news was not all bad. The number of people working in Hawaii, 574,650 last month, was down only 0.3 percent from 576,150 in February 2001.

In a separate measure, comparing February of this year with January of this year, the number of non-agriculture wage and salary jobs rose by 6,200, or 1.1 percent, to 548,350 jobs last month from 542,150 in January.