Big Island records more than 13,000 new unemployment claims in past two weeks

Big Islanders have filed 13,530 new joblessness claims between March 22 and April 4, according to newly released data from the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

The spike in jobless claims is due to business closures and layoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit Hawaii’s tourism- and serviced-based economy particularly hard.

Of the new jobless claims, 8,262 were filed in the Kona office, 4,303 of them last week. New filings at the Hilo office in the two-week time period total 5,268, with 2,760 of those claims filed last week.

Since March 1, 207,126 jobless claims have been filed statewide.

See Friday’s edition of the Tribune-Herald for a full story.