LIHUE —The June unemployment numbers released by the Hawaii State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) revealed Kauai has a non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.1 percent for June, up .6 percent from 2.5 in May.
At WorkWise Kauai, they had a total of 304 individuals come in for unemployment services. That number was down from May when they saw 358 individuals and up from April when they saw 270.
“Those who are unemployed, when they file unemployment benefits. they’re required to register here at the unemployment office which is inside the American Job Center,” Adele Manera said. “From there we will assist them and see if they are interested in programs and training in our government-funded programs.”
Those trainings are offered if the funds are available.
“Our eligible training provider is Kauai Community College at the beginning of each semester they’ll need to enroll,” Manera said. “So that would be for education or there are adult training courses, like computer courses or a certified security guard.”
Compared to June 2018, the county of Kauai had a non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.2 percent.
Kauai came in as having the lowest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of any county in the state along with Maui, and Honolulu who also registered a 3.1 percent unemployment rate for June. Hawaii County came in with the highest percentage, registering a 4.1 percent unemployment rate.
Despite the jump in the non-seasonally employment numbers on Kauai, there are still plenty of employment opportunities out there.
An established glass company on Kauai is looking for a laborer currently, which lead the company to post a job listing recently.
“It’s like daily calls asking,” Shawn Hada said. “Some of the people are asking some strange questions like ‘is it bottles’ because we are a glass company.”
Hada said he does not think it will be hard to find an employee from the listing as the company has been around for 28 years, but there has been an increase in strange applicants and late-night calls, some as late as 12:30 p.m.
“The only thing that I have noticed is there are a lot more strange calls, a lot more strange people on this island,” Hada said. “Some of the guys are like, I can tell there are some awkward questions. This island I think has a bad drug problem.”
The state of Hawaii had a 3.2 percent not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for June, which was .6 percent below the national average of 3.8 percent for the month. The state had a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 2.8 percent for the fourth consecutive month in June.
