Hawaii Jobless Claims Top 80,000 As Coronavirus Sinks The Economy
Nationwide, the federal Department of Labor reported 3 million more unemployment claims last week, dwarfing the previous high from 1982.
The Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations reported 67,071 new unemployment filings for the first half of this week, bringing the March total to 82,963. The jobless claims are spread out among various sectors, but economists expect the to be especially hard hit by the impact of the coronavirus.
In January, there were just over 650,000 non-farm jobs in Hawaii, according to published by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization. The loss of nearly 80,000 jobs thus represents a loss of more than 12% of the state鈥檚 total.
The state鈥檚 figures come alongside equally dire . The agency on Thursday reported a record number of claims with slightly more than 3 million new jobless claims across the nation for the week ending last Sunday. The previous high was 695,000 in October of 1982, the department reported.
The Hawaii and federal unemployment data are not exactly the same and thus can鈥檛 be compared, said William Kunstman, a spokesman for the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Still, the numbers show the order of magnitude of job losses across the U.S. and Hawaii, as broad swaths of the economy are shut down in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus.
Until the last few weeks, the once-thriving tourism market was a bastion of plentiful jobs in Hawaii. Now the state is seeing dramatically just how fragile that job base is when a crisis like COVID-19 hits.
On Thursday, Hawaii began imposing a new policy that will have a profoundly chilling effect on tourists: anyone coming into the state will be subject to a 14-day quarantine. Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases in Hawaii topped 100 on Thursday, as private and state laboratories confirmed 11 new cases, .
Policymakers face the grim challenge of trying to protect the public without tipping the economy into a deep recession that could also produce widespread social and health problems. Congress has responded by fast-tracking a $2 trillion stimulus bill that includes relief for working people, including cash payments of up to $1,200 per person and expanded unemployment benefits, as well as money to help small businesses and large firms keep the lights on until it鈥檚 safe to return to work.
Congress鈥 move has given index of large companies, which has posted a three-day rally following two weeks of declines.
Still, tens of thousands of people in Hawaii remain on edge, without work in an economy that depends largely on tourists who for now are no longer welcome here. In a , economist Peter Fuleky underscored the reality facing a large part of Hawaii鈥檚 population, much of which lives paycheck to paycheck.
鈥淲ith the median annual income in the industry , food service employees likely have limited savings and are not prepared to handle a system-wide shock to the visitor and local dining markets,鈥 he reported.
While the anticipated federal stimulus can help, he said, many of Hawaii鈥檚 restaurant industry job losses could last for months or years.
鈥淪hort-term income supplements will not go very far in addressing this longer-term problem,鈥 Fuleky said.
