LOS ANGELES — Hawaii's economy is expected to continue on a path of slow, but stable growth for the next few years.
The state's Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism predicted economic growth of 2% for 2015, rising slightly to 2.3% or 2.4% by 2018 in its fourth quarter 2015
Hawaii's economic growth has been lower than U.S. growth since 2012 and DBEDT said in the report it expects that the trend will continue for the next few years.
The U.S. is expected to post 2.4% growth for 2015, nearly a half percentage more than Hawaii, and 2.6% growth next year.
The number of mainland visitors grew, alleviating somewhat a drop in visitors from Japan as the yen weakened against the U.S. dollar.
Virgin America started a new daily flight from San Francisco to Honolulu on Nov. 2 and will start a new daily flight from San Francisco to Kahului on Dec. 3 this year, DBEDT Director Luis P. Salaveria said, in a statement.
"This will bring more West Coast visitors to our state and offset the decline in Japanese visitors," Salaveria said. "This news and the continued growth in our local job market are positive trends in our state's economy."
Visitors from Japan declined by 1% and spending by Japanese tourists fell by 10.1%, but visits from U.S. tourists grew by 7.5% and spending from U.S. tourists increased by 6.9%, according to the report.
DBEDT lowered the forecast on tourism revenues from the $15.5 billion originally projected in its third quarter report to $15.4 billion in its most recent report, citing the decline in Japanese daily visitor spending.
Airlines experienced a 4.1% increase in passenger numbers in October and a 4.8% increase for the first two weeks of November, according to Dr. Eugene Tian, DBEDT's economic research administrator.
"With an increase of 3.9% in scheduled air seats to Hawaii for the fourth quarter, we are confident that 2015 will be a record year for visitor arrivals," Tian said.
The state's unemployment has remained among the lowest in the country since 2009. And that trend continues, as the state is now ranked eighth lowest in the country at 3.9% for the first nine months of 2015.
DBEDT expects the unemployment rate will drop to 3.8% in 2015, lower than the 4% projected last quarter. It is expected to fall further declining to 3.3% in 2018.
Unemployment rates for all Hawaii counties dropped below 5% during the first nine months of 2015 and the gaps between neighbor island counties and Honolulu are getting smaller.
During the first nine months of 2015, Honolulu's unemployment rate was 3.6%, Hawaii County was 4.8%, Maui County was 4% and Kauai County was 4.4%.
