Unemployment benefits in Honolulu
Unemployment insurance in Honolulu is a Hawaii program, filed with the state agency rather than with Honolulu County. The weekly amount and the number of weeks come from state law, and both are below.
Where a Honolulu case goes
Claims from Honolulu go to the Hawaii unemployment agency, not to a Honolulu County office. Benefits are paid by the state under the formula below. Honolulu has about 344,967 residents (Census Bureau, 2024 estimate).
Open the full Hawaii unemployment calculator → — same formula, with every input, the statute (HRS § 383-22; Hawaii DLIR) and the date it was last checked.
Formula
Highest quarter ÷ 21
Maximum
$868 · up to 26 weeks
Does Honolulu have its own rule?
No. HRS § 383-22; Hawaii DLIR applies across Hawaii, so a claim from Honolulu is decided by the same numbers as one filed anywhere else in the state. What changes locally is which workforce office you deal with in person and how busy it is — not the weekly amount or the number of weeks.
What the statute says
HRS § 383-22; Hawaii DLIR — Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations — unemployment insurance. Hawaii uses one of the most generous divisors in the country — highest quarter ÷ 21 — with the maximum recomputed every January ($868 for 2026).
Last checked 2026-09-02. Read the source →