The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the State Employment and Unemployment Summary today, and just like the national numbers for May, the numbers for Hawaii were disappointing. In fact, Hawaii had one of the largest month-to-month percentage declines. “Alaska experienced the largest over-the-month percentage decline in employment (-0.8 percent), followed by New Mexico (-0.6 percent) and Delaware and Hawaii (-0.5 percent each).” The private sector added less than 1,000 jobs in May and government shed almost 4,000 jobs. For the first five months of 2012, total non-farm jobs have grown by 1% compared to the same period last year with an average of almost 597,000 jobs, an increase of roughly 5,000 jobs.
As you would imagine, the largest job gains were in the Accommodations and Food Services sector, (500 jobs). We also saw an increase of 400 jobs in Wholesale trade from April to May. Health Care, the Finance and Insurance sector, and the Transportation and Utility sectors all added 200 jobs in May. Unfortunately we continue to see losses in Construction (300 jobs), and Professional Science and Technical jobs declined by 300.
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Statewide the unemployment rate held steady at 6.3%, and the number of unemployed persons increased slightly. The Hawaii Department of Labor released county unemployment rates, and UHERO’s seasonal adjustment of these numbers allows us to make month-to-month comparisons. All counties saw stable unemployment rates from April to May. Big Island (9.3%), Kauai (8.2%), and Maui (7.2%) showed very small declines—basically unchanged, and Honolulu showed a slight increase from 5.4% in April to 5.5% in May—again basically unchanged. In fact little change is the story in Hawaii’s labor markets going back several years. For example, the Honolulu unemployment rate peaked at 6.1% in November 2009 and has only declined by 60 basis points to 5.5% this May.
– Carl Bonham