Kaua’i continues to have the highest unemployment rate among the counties in Hawai’i, but was more impacted by the closing of Amfac Sugar Kaua’i at the end of 2000 than it was by the events on and after September 11,
Kaua’i continues to have the highest unemployment rate among the counties in Hawai’i, but was more impacted by the closing of Amfac Sugar Kaua’i at the end of 2000 than it was by the events on and after September 11, 2001.
According to figures from the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the island’s unemployment rate after the closing of Amfac Sugar Kaua’i in November 2000, at 6.9 percent in December 2000, was greater than the rates in both December 2001 (6.5 percent) and January 2002 (6.2 percent).
In mid-November of 2000, most of the 400 employees of Amfac Sugar Kaua’i were terminated when sugar operations at the former Lihu’e Plantation Company and Kekaha Sugar Company ceased.
That made Kaua’i’s unemployment rate move from 6.7 percent in September 2000 to 6.9 percent in December 2000, while the aftermath of the terrorist events of September 11, 2001 had no impact on the Kaua’i unemployment rate (it remained at 6.5 percent in both September and December of last year, and dropped to 6.2 percent in January this year).
Economists and politicians feel that the county’s high percentage of high-occupancy timeshare units, its physical beauty, specific marketing efforts (at honeymooners, golfers, active adults, families, West Coast residents, etc.), and relative lack of dependence on Japanese visitors, all kept the island fairly insulated from the impacts of the terrorist events.
The January 2002 Kaua’i unemployment rate of 6.2 percent meant 1,900 unemployed people, a civilian labor force of 30,350, and 28,450 people employed on the island.
The January 2002 Kaua’i unemployment rate marks the lowest percentage figure since November 2000, the month Amfac Sugar Kaua’i closed, when the rate was 5.9 percent.
The U.S. unemployment rate in January this year (6.3 percent) jumped way above the state average of 4.8 percent. The December 2001 national unemployment rate was 5.4 percent, and 4.7 percent in January of last year.
January of this year also marked the first time in recent memory that the Kaua’i unemployment rate has been below the national figure.
Unemployment rates varied
before, after Amfac and 9/11
The chart, showing unemployment percentages for the counties and state before and after the closing of Amfac Sugar Kaua’i (November 2000) and the terrorist events of September 11th, 2001, indicates that the island was hurt more by the closing of the plantations than it was by terrorist events.
MONTH KAUA’I BIG MAUI O’AHU STATE
ISLAND
09/00 6.7% 6.5% 4.1% 3.7% 4.2%
12/00 6.9% 5.4% 3.3% 3.2% 3.6%
09/01 6.5% 6.5% 4.7% 4.1% 4.6%
12/01 6.5% 6.0% 5.8% 4.6% 5.0%
01/02 6.2% 5.8% 5.0% 4.4% 4.8%
YEAR
2001 7.0% 6.8% 4.8% 4.1% 4.6%
SOURCE: State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations
