University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization (UHERO) has looked at initial data provided by the State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) to the State Senate Special Committee on COVID-19 last week. DLIR head Scott Murakami said the data is based on a sample of 150,000 unemployment claims. In that meeting, Murakami said 238,051 unemployment claims have been filed so far.
The blog is by Justin Tyndall, Assistant Professor of Economics. UHERO says the blogs are provided to stimulate discussion and are the opinions of the writers.
Tyndall says the map provides a first indication of the severity of the labor market downturn, organized by zip code. The map displays the number of claims as a percentage of the number of workers living in each zip code. Claims appear to be more concentrated on the neighbor islands than on Oahu, and more concentrated where workers in the tourism industry live.
Click here for a link to the entire report. In his post, Tyndall also provides a link to unemployment, as of that sample taken on May 19, by zip codes.
