Hawaii jobless rate stays at 6.9 percent in February

Hawaii’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.9 percent in February. The rate held steady from January but it was a slight uptick from the 6.8 percent recorded in December 2009, according to the latest seasonally adjusted figures released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Hawaii’s unemployment rate was 6.3 percent a year ago. The state had 43,600 people out of work in February out of a labor force of 635,100. Hawaii's average jobless rate last year was 6.8 percent, an increase from 2008 but still well below the national average. In 2008, Hawaii had a jobless rate of 4 percent. The national average of unemployment last year was 9.3 percent, a 3.5 percentage-point jump from the prior year.

All 50 states posted significant unemployment rate increases in 2009. Michigan and Nevada had the largest rates, with 13.6 and 11.8 percent, respectively. North Dakota had the lowest at 4.3 percent, which was still a 1.1 percentage-point increase from the previous year.

Hawaii added 200 jobs between January and February to bring the state’s total number of non-agricultural jobs to 585,000. That was down 15,600 jobs from the total 600,600 non-agricultural jobs Hawaii had in February 2009.