The Maui News

Maui County’s jobless rate hovered at 21.3 percent in July, about the same as the previous month but the highest among the state’s four counties, the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations reported Thursday.

The unemployment rate was 21.6 percent in June. A year ago, the rate was 2.6 percent.

Maui island’s rate was higher, 22 percent, in July, down from 22.3 percent in June. Molokai’s rate was 7.9 percent, about the same as the 8 percent a year earlier, while Lanai’s was 4.8 percent, up from the 1 percent in 2019.

By comparison, Honolulu’s jobless rate was 11.1 percent; Hawaii County’s, 12.8 percent; and Kauai’s, 18.7 percent.

The county figures were not adjusted for seasonal changes, though with the economy wracked by COVID-19 and no tourism, the adjustments matter less.

The state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 13.1 percent in July, down from 13.4 percent in June. The national rate was 10.2 percent in July.

There were 83,250 people unemployed in Hawaii in July, 65,100 more people than a year earlier. The number of people employed fell 93,650 compared to 2019, to 551,750.

Initial claims for unemployment fell 3.8 percent in July, compared to June, to 7,230. Weekly claims, however, continued to rise by 2.5 percent, to 128,808.

Reflecting the effects of the pandemic, the number of initial claims jumped about 6,000 or 487 percent compared to last July; weekly claims rose by 121,487 or 1,659 percent.