Hawaii’s true unemployment picture is worse than the official 9% derived from data that makes the state’s jobless rate the highest in the nation, with many who have returned to work getting only part-time jobs that leave them underemployed, according to the director of the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hawaii had the lowest unemployment rate in the nation at 2.4%.

But in labor data based on a survey released Thursday, the hidden unemployment rate was estimated at 19.4% for 2020.

“We are seeing claimants go back to work, but they’re going back to work for a part-time basis only,” DLIR Director Anne Perreira- Eustaquio said Friday on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Spotlight Hawaii at star advertiser.com.

“So they’re still unemployed, still receiving benefits.”

The 19.4% unemployment figure for 2020 is based on “a survey,” said DLIR spokesman Bill Kunstman. “It’s not actual job data.”

At 19.4%, Hawaii’s rate trailed only New Hampshire’s, at 19.6%.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Hawaii’s 19.4% rate accounts for “total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.”

Hawaii’s official unemployment rate fell from 9.2% in February. But this week’s rate of 9% was still the worst in the nation, followed by New York (8.5%); New Mexico, Connecticut and California (each at 8.3%); and Nevada (8.1%).

On Monday, 25 mainland-based contract workers will join 25 internal labor department employees who have been trained in adjudicating unemployment disputes, primarily involving overpayments.

Unemployment claimants whose benefits have been held up because of initial overpayments are “definitely our biggest backlog at this point,” Kuntsman said. “It stops any further payment until that week’s claim is adjudicated.”

The 25 adjudicators from contractor Solid State will join the newly trained local adjudicators in making calls to people who were overpaid. They will work morning through nights and on weekends from phone numbers with 808 area codes.

Perreira-Eustaquio urged unemployment claimants to answer calls from unknown phone numbers, even if they’re wary, because it could be from an adjudicator. If there’s no initial answer, Perreira-Eustaquio said the adjudicator likely will leave a voicemail saying they will call back in 10 minutes.

On Tuesday, DLIR also will launch a pilot appointment program — for Oahu only — that will let people with unemployment claim issues make appointments two weeks in advance via Zoom or phone, which has the biggest demand compared with Zoom, Perreira-Eustaquio said. The appointment program is not intended for overpayment disputes.

Perreira-Eustaquio said she’s still concerned about reports of fraud and companies trying to hijack claims via text by promising to get claimants paid.

“We do not reach out through text message,” she said, and will never ask for a full Social Security number or bank information. At the most, Perreira-Eustaquio said, DLIR employees will ask to verify a claimant’s last four digits of their Social Security number.

Perreira-Eustaquio also has heard reports of claimants being contacted via social media, asking for personal information in order to clear up a claim in exchange for payments from $100 to $500.

“Please do not pay anyone to clean up a claim for you,” Perreira-Eustaquio said. “That is not the route to go.”