Since recession began, Hawaii joblessness rose 129 percent

Hawaii’s unemployment rate has risen 3.6 percentage points -- a 129 percent increase, from 2.8 percent to 6.4 percent -- since the recession began, according to an analysis of statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released in late October.

The state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 2.8 percent in September 2007, three months before the official start of the recession. Hawaii’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.4 percent in September, 0.2 percentage points higher than August, but down slightly from a year ago. The seasonally adjusted rate for the same month in 2010 was 6.5 percent, according to the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

The increase ranked the percentage point increase in the Hawaii unemployment rate 22nd in the nation during that time period, according to the analysis by On Numbers.

North Dakota was ranked No. 1 — its unemployment rate increased by just 0.3 percentage points over the four-year period. Every other state has experienced a jump in its unemployment rate of at least 1.1 percentage points during the past four years.

North Dakota’s direct opposite is Nevada, which boasted a high-flying economy prior to 2007. But the recession caused Americans to scale back their travel plans, severely harming such tourist destinations as Las Vegas and Reno. Nevada’s unemployment rate soared from 4.8 percent in September 2007 to 13.4 percent last month, an increase of 8.6 percentage points.