The state unemployment rate fell to 7 percent in November from 7.3 percent the month before, the national Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

Despite the improvement, the rate was still substantially higher than the 4.9 percent rate in November 2008.
There were 45,000 people unemployed out of a total workforce of 644,700, according to the report.
Unemployment is expected to remain relatively high next year, according to a forecast released today by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization. The forecast calls for unemployment to average 7.3 percent in 2010 before easing to 6.7 percent in 2011.