HAWAI‘I’S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE AT 13.9 PERCENT IN JUNE

Jobs declined by 94,700 over-the-year

News Release from DLIR, July 16, 2020

HONOLULU — The Hawai‘i State Department of Labor & Industrial Relations (DLIR) today announced that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for June was 13.9 percent compared to the revised rate of 23.5 percent in May. Statewide, 527,600 were employed and 85,200 unemployed in June for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 612,800. Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 11.1 percent in June, down from 13.3 percent in May.

The DLIR would like to note that the COVID-19 Pandemic is impacting the data derived from the Current Population Survey (CPS), the survey used to produce the unemployment rate, also known as the household survey. In the household survey, individuals are classified as employed, unemployed, or not in the labor force based on questions about their activities during the survey reference week (June 7th through June 13th).

COVID-19-related issues are affecting the counts and the official level of unemployment published for the State of Hawai‘i by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The major discrepancy, with the exception of those unemployed on temporary layoff, is that individuals without a job who are not actively seeking work, particularly during this time of government-ordered business closures and social distancing requirements, are classified as not in the labor force in the CPS.

The CPS misclassification issue of workers who were recorded as “employed but not at work” instead of “unemployed on temporary layoff” is a contributing factor and the low response rate for the CPS during the pandemic is possibly another factor. More information on CPS can be found in the Technical Notes and BLS’s web site provides more information about the impact of COVID-19 on the household survey data (click on BLS COVID-19 Employment Situation FAQs under Related links on the HIWI Labor Force and Unemployment webpage).

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STATE RELEASES UPDATED UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE INFORMATION

State Has Issued $2.2 Billion in Benefits Since March 1

News Release from DLIR, July 16, 2020

HONOLULU — The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) today announced updated unemployment insurance claims information, including paying $2,189,522,737 and 2,030,502 weeks claimed since the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic on March 1, 2020.

“Ninety-one percent (91%) of the valid unemployment insurance claims that have come in since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic have been processed and paid out by the DLIR. Although it appears that the number of claims requiring departmental action is stable, we are still receiving nearly 8,000 new claims a week,” said Deputy Director Anne Perreira-Eustaquio (see chart below).

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