Unemployment count up in Kaua’i County

The Hawai’i State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations announced that statewide unemployment has decreased, but unemployment increased in Kaua’i County compared with national and state figures.

The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations’ Research and Statistics Office says the number of workers in the county decreased: there were 28,800 workers in May, compared to 29,100 in April. In May 2002, there were 1,650 unemployed people on Kaua’i.

The statewidde unemployment rate in May was 4.2 percent, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point compared with April, when it was 4.4 percent. The national unemployment rate was 5.5 percent; it also decreased by 0.2 percent in comparison to the previous month.

In May, 570,600 people were employed in the state, and 24,900 were unemployed. In Kaua’i County, 27,100 people were employed and 1,700 were unemployed in May. Last May in the county, 27,600 people were employed and 2,000 people were without work.

Usually the main reason the unemployment rate shows an increase is because more unemployment claims are filed, according to DLIR. Unemployment claims increased by about 100 in Kaua’i County, according to DLIR Research and Statistics.

There are about 100 more total non-agriculture jobs in the county than there were in April.

Unemployment rates are figured using population statistics, job count estimates and the number of continuing unemployment claims, according to the DLIR Research and Statistics.