The employment picture on the Big Island continued to slowly brighten in April, bearing out forecasts of a steady increase in jobs statewide into at least the first quarter of 2016.
Unemployment in Hawaii County edged down from 4.9 percent in March to 4.8 percent in April, the fifth consecutive month of declines, according to figures released this week by the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.
Preliminary data shows Hawaii Island adding 400 service sector jobs, and the trade, transportation and utilities sector adding 200 jobs in April. Wholesale trade and retail trade each added 100 jobs as well, and government jobs increased by 200. These gains were offset by the loss of 500 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector.
Hawaii County still holds the highest unemployment rate among the four counties, with 81,750 people in the workforce but another 4,150 lacking jobs.
The construction sector is set to receive a significant shot in the arm over the next several years. Poised to boost that sector are the widening of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway from Kealakehe Parkway to Kona International Airport — a $100 million project that transportation officials are optimistic will begin this fall — and the Kona Judiciary Complex, a $90 million undertaking set to break ground in the fall of 2016. Additionally, ground is scheduled to be broken on a $56 million firefighter training facility at the airport next May.
The seasonally adjusted statewide average unemployment rate was 4.1 percent in April, where it has remained for the last three months. Unemployment in Hawaii has declined fairly steadily from 4.8 percent in April of 2013, in keeping with the national trends. The national unemployment rate stood at 5.4 percent in April, down from 6.2 percent in the same month last year.
Government jobs led statewide growth areas with 1,100 openings in April, 200 of them on the Big Island. Most of the jobs were seasonal increases at the Department of Education and the University of Hawaii system. Educational and health services added 100 jobs statewide, but losses were posted in construction, which shed 900 jobs, and trade, transportation and utilities; professional and business services; and leisure and hospitality, with those three sectors losing 200 jobs each.
Nearly 20,000 new jobs could be created statewide for the period covering the first quarter of 2014 to the same time in 2016 — an increase of 2.9 percent, according to DLIR short term employment forecasts.
Statewide, construction and extraction jobs are expected to grow 6.1 percent, with 1,540 new jobs created each year in 2014 through the first quarter of next year. Service jobs — including restaurant work, groundskeeping and maintenance — are projected to see the greatest increase, with 8,810 new jobs each year.