Market News

Hawaii’s economy continues to add jobs, but the rate of growth remains tepid. Over the past 12 months, the state added 3,200 new jobs, representing a growth rate of .5%. This lackluster growth may be due to the fact that the unemployment rate was a very healthy 2.7%. On Maui, employment growth dropped 2.2% year-over-year, and has been contracting for the past 14 months.

Hawaii’s economy continues to add jobs, but the rate of growth is tepid. Over the past 12 months, Hawaii added just 1,400 new jobs, representing a growth rate of 0.2%. Even with this lack of job formation, the state has a very healthy 2.8% unemployment rate. On the Big Island, year-over-year employment dropped 4.7% to 84,600 persons and has been negative for the past eight months.

Over the past 12 months, Montana has added 4,800 new non-agricultural jobs. This represents an annual growth rate of a modest 0.9%, which is lower than the national growth rate of 1.7%. In the first quarter of the year, the state lost 1,300 non-agricultural jobs, which was a disappointment, but I remain hopeful we will see some improvement as we move through the balance of the year.

Oregon added 29,500 new jobs over the past 12 months, representing an annual growth rate of 1.5%. The current pace of job growth continues the slowdown that started in mid-2018. I am not overly concerned by this slowdown in growth, as it is typical for this stage in the economic cycle.