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At first glance, Friday's story about Maui County's unemployment rate continuing to drop appeared to be very good news.
But we learned some things from the story that left us a little bit puzzled. For example, the story explained that a random statewide telephone survey by the U.S. Census Bureau is used to determine the unemployment rate. Therefore, some of the unemployed may be missed -- including the hundreds laid off when Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. ceased sugar operations.
The next sentence read, "In addition, agricultural jobs are not counted in the survey."
Wait a minute. The Census Bureau survey that is the main basis for determining the unemployment rate doesn't count jobs lost in agriculture? We would argue that in recent years the sector where Maui County has lost the most jobs is agriculture. First the pineapple jobs disappeared, now the sugar jobs. The rest of the state may not have been heavily involved in ag in recent years, but Maui County sure has been.
Excluding ag jobs lost from the statewide survey just doesn't make sense for Maui. In addition to the folks who lost jobs in the fields and the mills, there is also a ripple effect. Folks on docks and in transportation lost jobs when these ag operations closed down.
The unemployment numbers for December released Thursday by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations may be accurate on a statewide basis.
But Maui County's official jobless rate of 2.7 percent in December appears to paint a rosy picture. Too rosy. We're afraid that it might be a little bit blurred.
* Editorials reflect the opinion of the publisher.