Unemployment picture brightens, except on Molokai

July’s statewide unemployment rate of 6.3 percent reflected improvement in the Hawaii jobless rates on most islands. While Oahu joblessness remained steady at an unadjusted 5.8 percent and rates dropped on Maui, Kauai and the Big Island, Molokai unemployment rose from 12.1 percent in June to 14.8 percent in July. There are now fewer than 600,000 wage and salary jobs in Hawaii, and more than 40,000 unemployed workers, but both figures are better than year-before levels.

The Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations released island-by-island figures on Monday, Aug. 23 that showed Big Island unemployment fell from 10.4 percent in June to 10 percent in July. On Kauai, joblessness fell from 9 percent to 8.7 percent, while on Maui the rate dropped from 8.3 percent to 8 percent. Lanai joblessness fell even more, from 7.9 percent to 7 percent.

The improvement comes to about 4,000 fewer unemployed persons from July 2009 to July 2010. The total work force has increased by only 1,100 in the past year and actually shrank from June to July. Possible explanations include unemployed workers exhausting their benefits so that they are no longer counted; military workers deployed elsewhere; construction workers returning to the mainland after wrapping up the jobs they came here for; and people deciding to leave the work force to return to school.

New jobless claims in Hawaii fell below 2,000 in the newest weekly report, and total claims were less than 8,000, the lowest level in a year and a half. DLIR on Aug. 26 reported 1,865 first-time claims and 17,432 total unemployment claims for the period Aug. 15-21. The number of new claims was the lowest since June 26 and second lowest since August 2008. The total claims number was the lowest since December 2008.

Comparing current jobless claims to the same time last year, claims are down 9% on the Big Island, down 14% on Oahu and Kauai, and down by nearly half in Maui County. The dramatic declines were reported after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington, D.C., cheered markets with a comparatively modest decline in new jobless claims nationwide following several weeks of increases.

Economists consider employment to be a lagging economic indicator, meaning it’s one of the last things to improve as an economic downturn ends.