The Maui News

Maui County’s unemployment rate in August was 3.9 percent, compared to 4.2 percent in July and 6.7 percent in August 2021, the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism reported Thursday.

On Maui island, the unemployment rate for August was 3.8 percent, compared to 4 percent in July and 6.9 percent in August 2021.

Molokai saw the highest jobless rate in the state, while Lanai saw the lowest.

On Molokai, the unemployment rate was 10.2 percent, down from 11.4 percent in July but up from the 6.2 percent rate the island saw in August 2021.

On Lanai, the unemployment rate was 1.9 percent, down from 5.1 percent in July and 2.7 percent in August 2021.

Statewide, Kauai led the counties with a 4.3 percent unemployment rate, while Hawaii County’s rate was 3.7 percent and Honolulu County’s was 3.5 percent.

The unemployment rates by county were not seasonally adjusted, meaning they didn’t take into account hiring and layoff patterns that come with summer and winter seasons.

Hawaii’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August was 4.1 percent, slightly up from the revised rate of 4 percent in July and the 5.3 percent unemployment rate the state saw in August 2021.

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate last month was 3.7 percent, slightly up from 3.5 percent in July, but significantly down from 5.2 percent in August 2021.

Statewide, 651,550 people were employed and 27,650 were unemployed in August for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 679,250.

This was a slight increase from August 2021, when there were 638,300 employed people and 35,800 unemployed people for a total labor force of 674,100.