County unemployment hovers around 3%

Unemployment in Maui County hovered just over 3 percent in January, a reflection of Hawaii’s steady economic recovery, especially in heavily tourism-dependent counties of Maui and Kauai.

Maui County’s jobless rate of 3.1 percent in January was a slight improvement over the rate of 3.6 percent in January 2022, according to state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism data released Friday. By island, the unemployment rate was 3.6 percent on Molokai, 3.1 percent on Maui and 2 percent on Lanai, which was the lowest in the state.

Statewide, the unemployment rate was 3.1 percent, which is lower than January 2022 when it was 3.3 percent. Hawaii County had the highest unemployment rate at 3.4 percent, slightly up from 3.1 percent a year ago, while Honolulu County’s rate was 3.1 percent, near-level with the 3.2 percent it saw a year ago, and Kauai County’s was 3 percent, down from 3.7 percent a year ago.

The numbers were not seasonally adjusted, meaning they did not take into account the hiring and layoff patterns of the winter holiday season.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the state was 3.6 percent in January, up from 3.2 percent in January 2022.

The unemployment rates being relatively low and generally the same across the counties is likely a reflection of the fact that visitor arrivals to Maui, Kauai and Hawaii counties are essentially back to pre-pandemic levels, the executive director of the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, Carl Bonham, said Thursday.

Because of this, Maui and Kauai counties, whose economies are more tourism-reliant, are finally catching up with Oahu and Hawaii island in terms of payroll employment, a UHERO report released Friday said. Both Maui and Kauai have seen bigger drops in unemployment rates than Oahu and Hawaii island over the past year.

The recovery of the visitor industry can also be seen in job gains, with leisure and hospitality jobs increasing by 4,300 in January, the most of any sector, according to the DBEDT report. Trade, transportation and utilities jobs increased by 500, while construction jobs rose by 300. Job losses were primarily in professional and business services, which fell by 400, and in education and health, which dropped by 100.

Overall, nonfarm positions increased by 2,100 from December to January. Since January 2022, they’ve gone up by 24,400.

While the unemployment rate is lower than it was a year ago, the number of people without a job has increased as the size of the labor force has grown. In January, out of a labor force of 679,050, a total of 654,450 people were employed and 24,650 were unemployed.