Latest news with #EugeneTian
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State jobless rate remains among the nation's lowest
Hawaii continues to rank among the nation's top states for low unemployment. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate in April remained at 2.9 % for the second straight month after holding at 3.0 % for the previous eight months, according to data released last week from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. In addition, Hawaii's nonagriculture year-over-year payroll job growth rate at 2.7 % was the highest in the nation in April. 'April labor data shows that Hawaii has one of the best labor markets in the nation, ' DBEDT state Chief Economist Eugene Tian said via email. 'Compared with April 2019, Hawaii's labor force and employment in April 2025 were fully recovered to the same levels in April 2019.' Tian, 68, who is retiring effective Sunday after 33 years with DBEDT—15 years as chief economist—said the state agency expects 'slowing down in job growth for the rest of the year, mainly caused by the reduction in federal employment, reduction in federal grants, and slowing down in tourism. For the year as a whole, we still expect job growth at around 1.0 %.' Hawaii's 2.9 % unemployment rate in April ranked behind only South Dakota, 1.8 %; North Dakota, 2.6 %; and Vermont and Montana, both at 2.7 %, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Tian said two factors are keeping Hawaii's unemployment rate steady. 'More people are joining the labor force, ' he said. 'We saw the labor force participation rate increase or be stable in the last 10 months. Also, more people have found jobs. Most Hawaii industries have gained jobs in the past year.' The state's labor force, which includes those who are employed, those who are unemployed but actively seeking work and those who are self-employed, increased to 688, 300 in April from 686, 450 in March. Those employed edged up to 668, 650 from 666, 600, while the number of people unemployed decreased to 19, 650 from 19, 850. Tian said federal layoffs that were spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, already have occurred among federal government jobs in Hawaii. 'In April, the federal civilian job count was 34, 800, the lowest since February 2023, and a decrease of 1, 000 jobs from April 2024, ' Tian said. 'However, we saw the job count increase in state government year over year. 'State government has been having a high vacancy rate. I believe some of the federal workers may have found jobs in the state government. From the initial unemployment claims data, we did not see an increase in unemployment claims. The average weekly initial unemployment claims for the first 20 weeks of 2025 (through May 17 ) was at 1, 043, lower than the 1, 059 during the same period in 2019.' Tian said federal civilian employees should claim unemployment benefits with the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations if they were laid off in Hawaii. Nationally, the unemployment rate in April held at 4.2 %. Hawaii's nonfarm payrolls, calculated from a mail survey of employers, increased by 1, 500 in April from March. The leisure and hospitality sector showed the largest increase at 1, 900 with private education and health serv ices next with a gain of 1, 100. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate was mixed in the state's four major counties from March. State and national labor force data is adjusted for seasonal factors, but the county jobs data is not seasonally adjusted and thus does not take into account variations such as the winter holiday and summer vacation seasons. Honolulu County's rate rose to 2.4 % from 2.3 %, Hawaii County inched up to 2.8 % from 2.7 %, Kauai County increased to 2.3 % from 2.2 % and Maui County held at 3.0 %. Within Maui County, Maui's rate remained at 3.0 %, Molokai's rate dipped to 2.0 % from 2.1 % and Lanai's rate rose to 4.9 % from 3.5 %. HOLDING STEADY The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate over the past year : HAWAII April 2025 2.9 % March 2025 2.9 % February 2025 3.0 % March 2025 2.9 % January 2025 3.0 % December 2024 3.0 % November 2024 3.0 % October 2024 3.0 % September 2024 3.0 % August 2024 3.0 % July 2024 3.0 % June 2024 2.9 % May 2024 2.9 % April 2024 2.9 %—U.S. April 2025 4.2 % March 2025 4.2 % February 2025 4.1 % January 2025 4.0 % December 2024 4.1 % November 2024 4.2 % October 2024 4.1 % September 2024 4.1 % August 2024 4.2 % July 2024 4.2 % June 2024 4.1 % May 2024 4.0 % April 2024 3.9 % Source : State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism ; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hawaii jobless rate holds at 3% for seventh straight month
Hawaii's job market continues to be a picture of consistency. The state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in January held at 3.0 % for the seventh straight month after six consecutive months at 2.9 %, according to data released Friday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. 'The unemployment rate indicates that the Hawaii labor market is stable, ' Chief Economist Eugene Tian of DBEDT said in an email. 'More people have now joined the labor force, and the labor force participation rate improved from 59.8 % in January 2024 to 60.1 % in January 2025.' During the seven-month period from July through January, the labor force, employment and unemployment have all been stable, Tian said. However, he noted that there are not many new hires occurring in the state. 'This indicates that our businesses are losing momentum, ' Tian said. 'This may not be a good thing, especially many of our industries are still recovering from the COVID-19 recession, such as tourism.' DBEDT's latest jobless figures were revised due to the annual benchmark revision of employment statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. DBEDT earlier had reported monthly unemployment rates of 2.9 %—rather than 3.0 %—through the back half of 2024. Don 't miss out on what 's happening ! Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It 's FREE ! Email 28141 Sign Up By clicking to sign up, you agree to Star-Advertiser 's and Google 's and. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA. Tian said the purpose of benchmarking is to correct sampling errors of the monthly data due to lagging information, and to continue to produce future monthly data based on the revised historical monthly data to make the new monthly data more accurate. Hawaii's labor force, which includes those who are employed, those who are unemployed but actively seeking work and those who are self-employed, increased to 683, 250 in January from 682, 300 in December. Those employed rose to 662, 850 from 661, 600, while the number of people unemployed decreased to 20, 400 from 20, 700. However, the number of people unemployed was 500 higher than it was in January 2024. Nationally, the unemployment rate was 4.0 % in January, down from 4.1 % in December. Nonfarm payrolls, calculated from a mail survey of employers, fell from the previous month but were up from a year ago. Jobs decreased by 500 in January from December, with leisure and hospitality showing the largest drop with 1, 100 lost positions. However, year over year, nonfarm jobs increased by 9, 900, or 1.6 %. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate was mixed in the state's four major counties from the previous month. State and national labor force data is adjusted for seasonal factors, but the county jobs data is not seasonally adjusted and thus does not take into account variations such as the winter holiday and summer vacation seasons. Honolulu County's rate held at 2.6 %, and Hawaii County remained at 3.1 %. Kauai County's rate declined to 2.5 % from 2.7 %, and Maui County's rate fell to 3.4 % from 3.5 %. Within Maui County, Maui's rate fell to 3.4 % from 3.5 %, and Molokai's rate decreased to 3.2 % from 3.4 %. Lanai's rate rose to 3.5 % from 2.6 %.
