Job count holds up
Hawaii unemployment
averaged 3.7% in April, besting
the national rate of 5.8%.
Statewide unemployment averaged 3.7 percent last month, down from 4.4 percent in April 2002 and more than two points below the national rate of 5.8 percent.
There were 576,300 people in jobs last month, 19,600 more than a year earlier, an increase of 3.5 percent, according to state figures.
There were 22,400 people unemployed in April, a decline of 3,400 or 13.2 percent from 25,800 unemployed in April 2002.
Economists consider the job count to be a more important indicator of the economy then the unemployment percentage.
"The job count has been fairly strong," said Leroy Laney, a professor of economics at Hawaii Pacific University and an economic consultant in the private sector. Hawaii's unemployment level has been consistently below the nation's for some time, he said.
The state unemployment figure may be affected by some people giving up and not seeking jobs, Laney said. "You have to be either employed or looking for a job" to show up in the state figures, he said. By the state's definition, an unemployed person is one seeking work but not finding it.
Hawaii also has a kind of jobless cushion, Laney said. People come to the islands to take jobs in, say, a construction project. While it is going on they are employed. When the work is gone they will go back to the mainland and not show up as unemployed in Hawaii, Laney said.
Oahu, the island that employs most of Hawaii's workers, had a 3.3 percent jobless rate last month, down from a year-earlier 4.1 percent. The island that employs the fewest, Lanai, had a 2.6 percent unemployment rate, down from 3.6 percent in April 2002.
Molokai had the state's highest jobless rate, 7.9 percent, and that was an increase from 7.6 percent the previous April. The rest of the state had lower levels. The Big Island was at 5.7 percent last month, down from 5.9 percent in April 2002. Kauai, at 5 percent, was down from 5.3 percent. Maui's April jobless rate was 3.6 percent, down from a year-earlier 4.4 percent.
The April jobless rate of 3.7 percent was up from 3.4 percent in March.
Announcing the monthly figures yesterday, the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said there is normally an upward movement in the jobless rate in April because of a seasonal drop in staffing at public and private schools. The figures issued by the state are not seasonally adjusted.