The nonseasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Maui County fell to 6.1 percent in August, down 1.8 percentage points from last August, the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations reported Thursday.
The nonseasonally adjusted jobless rate by island follows:
* Maui, 5.9 percent, down from 6.4 percent in July and 7.6 percent in August 2011.
* Lanai, 1.9 percent, down from 2.9 percent in July and 6 percent in August 2011.
* Molokai, 14.5 percent, down from 15.9 percent in July and 15 percent in August 2011.
For the state, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August was 6.1 percent, down from the revised rate of 6.3 percent in July. The national seasonally adjusted jobless rate for the same month was 8.1 percent.
Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that accounts for seasonal fluctuations in employment numbers due to such events as the winter holiday season and the summer vacation season. The adjustment makes it possible to assess whether changes in the employment patterns month-to-month are due to normal seasonal patterns or economic conditions, the labor department news release said.
There were 601,350 people employed and 38,900 unemployed in August for a seasonally adjusted labor force of 640,250.
Nonagricultural jobs were up 4,100 jobs over July and 14,100 since the beginning of the year. The largest growth in August was in the education and health service sector, which was up 1,100 jobs. Most of those increases came in social assistance and ambulatory health care services.
As far as the other islands go:
* Oahu had a 5.1 percent unemployment rate, down from 6 percent last August.
* The Big Island had an 8.3 percent rate, down from 10.2 percent last August.
* Kauai had a 7 percent unemployment rate, down from 9 percent last August.
The island numbers were not seasonally adjusted.
