Maui island's unemployment rate jumped 17 percent between August and September, to 5.2 percent, The Maui News reported.

That was 40 percent above the rate in September 2007.

The statewide rate rose more slowly over the month, from 4.2 percent to 4.5 percent, but it was only 2.8 percent in September 2007.

The Maui rise was not surprising, given the drop in visitor numbers. However, statewide the "leisure and hospitality" category showed no change in overall employment. Restaurant workers increased, while hotel workers decreased from August to September.

The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, which released the statistics Monday, did not break out the subdivisions of the changes by county.

A year before, Maui and Hawai'i counties had had the highest unemployment rates in the state, 3.7 percent. That, however, was well below the national rate then of 4.7 percent.

The state's rate of 4.5 percent is still far below the national rate, which was 6.1 percent in August and again in September.

The numbers are adjusted for seasonal variations statewide, although individual islands are not adjusted.

Maui County now ranks in the middle among the counties.

O'ahu, which had unemployment of 2.7 percent in September 2007, has seen it grow to 4.2 percent. Kaua'i, nearly as low at 2.8 percent the year before, is now at 4.9 percent.

Maui County is next, 5.5 percent. Maui island is at 5.2 percent. Moloka'i is at 15.3 percent, up from 14.1 percent in August. Lana'i is at 4.9 percent, up from 1.6 percent, which was by far the lowest rate in the state in 2007.

The seasonally adjusted statewide labor force has grown by almost 20,000 since last September, and despite the rocky economic situation there were more jobs in the islands this September than last September. The gain was 1,500, to a total of 637,550.

Since the gain in jobs was much less than the gain in would-be workers, the number of unemployed in the state rose by 12,000, or 66 percent, in a year, to a total of 30,200 in September.

These numbers do not include people who may have had their second jobs eliminated or their hours reduced in their main jobs.

The jobs total includes agriculture. Excluding agriculture, the number of jobs available in the state dropped by 1,800 from August to September, to 623,100.

Jobs increased in private eduction, health services and other services. They declined in transportation and construction. The biggest job loss over the past year has been at the Department of Education, down by 900.

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