We hear this often: There are no jobs here for young people, so they have to leave their home and head to the mainland.
Indeed, one might think there are few jobs to be had out there. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August was 2.1 percent for the third consecutive month. Statewide, 672,700 were employed and 14,600 unemployed in August for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 687,300. And here on Kauai, the jobless rate was 2.3 percent in August, the same as July, but up from 2.0 percent in August 2017.
So, no jobs, right?
Wrong.
Some employers will tell you a different story. They’ll explain that with such a low unemployment rate, with fewer people looking for work, it’s difficult to find qualified people who want to work for them and will keep the job once hired. Most people who operate businesses will tell you the hardest part is hiring and keeping good staff. Of course, what they offer in terms of pay and benefits impacts whether they can keep staff around.
We want to see young people staying on Kauai to work rather than being forced to leave. And that is possible — depending on the job you are seeking.
Which brings us to this question: What are the top jobs in Hawaii?
The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism recently released a report on Top 20 Occupations in Hawaii that offers answers.
Retail sales workers topped the list at 42,445 workers in 2016, which accounted for 5.9 percent of Hawaii’s civilian workforce, followed by food and beverage serving workers at 40,775, which accounted for 5.7 percent of Hawaii’s civilian workforce. Construction trade workers ranked third place at 34,137, which accounted for 4.8 percent of Hawaii’s civilian workforce.
And why does this matter?
“This report is an important tool to understand Hawaii’s current job market as we continue to look for ways to diversify job opportunities for our local residents,” said DBEDT Director Luis P. Salaveria.
When looking at the growth rates, nursing, psychiatric and home health aides grew the most, 71.4 percent between 2001 and 2016. This reflects the growth of Hawaii’s elderly population and the increase in demand for home healthcare.
Among the top 20 fastest-growing occupations between 2001 and 2016, seven of them were healthcare-related, such as nursing, psychiatric, home health aides, occupational therapy and physical therapist assistants, other personal care and service workers, health diagnosing and treating practitioners, health technologists and technicians, other healthcare support occupations, other healthcare practitioners and technical occupations.
“Among the top 20 occupations between U.S. and Hawaii, only two occupations were different. In the U.S., computer occupations and health technologists and technicians were among the top 20, while in Hawaii top executives and other food preparation and serving related workers were among the top 20,” noted Chief State Economist Dr. Eugene Tian. “The number of construction trade workers in Hawaii had the second-largest growth between 2001 and 2016, because construction in Hawaii was at a downturn in 2001. Nevertheless, construction trade workers made up the third-largest occupation group for Hawaii and the fourth-largest for the nation.”
In case you were wondering, the highest paying occupation in Hawaii in 2017 was health diagnosing and treating practitioners with median hourly earnings of $46.11; followed by top executives at $45.31; and lawyers, judges and related workers at $42.06.
Among the top 20 occupations, Asians were the largest racial group in all the categories except top executives, where caucasians had the largest proportion.
The point of all this?
There are jobs here. If you are willing to work hard, do your research and learn your craft, you can find work.
And on the other side of this equation, employers need to do their best to offer good wages and benefits. That’s the best way to keep great staff.
Good job opportunities will keep the next generation home.
Tradesmen never out work. Not easy learning but beneficial.
Yes there are jobs available. The biggest issue is the ever-increasing costs of living. The rental rates here are getting astronomical. In order to afford to live here, a single person has to take home at least $3000 a month since studio rentals start around $1200. A family of 4 has to take home over $5000 a month since a 3-bedroom house starts around $2000 a month. How many jobs are available where someone can make enough money to support that? Retail sales and food and beverage workers cannot make that much without holding 2 jobs. Unless you have a college degree in certain fields (health care), that income is unlikely. The Mayor and County Council refuse to come up with a way of approving multiple dwellings on residential properties. The supply of places to live is so low compared to the demand. People with HUD cannot find homes because there are so few approved and landlords refuse to let HUD people live there. People are moving not just because they cannot find a job. There are many other economical factors. The cost of living in most places on the mainland is so much less than on Kauai. This is why people are leaving.
I’d be curious to see statistics for those moving between islands, and to and from the mainland.
The low unemployment in Hawaii seems to occur because of people working multiple part-time jobs, or else leaving entirely when they cannot find sustainable work. It doesn’t mean there are jobs and desperate employers out there.
If you’re Japanese, finding a job is not much of a problem. Just look at the statistics of the Japanese population in Hawaii which consists of 17%, but are over representative in the State and County departments including the DOE where work force numbers amount to 67% or more of total work force.
Just go to the telephone directory and scroll down the various departments
People aren’t leaving Hawaii because they can’t find jobs, they’re leaving because their retail sales and food service jobs aren’t providing enough income to cover the ridiculous cost of living and unattainable housing costs here.
When I graduated from college in 1970 and moved to Oahu to live and work, I got a management training job at a well-established local corporation. I was only 21 and couldn’t afford to rent a place on my own so I lived with two other singles. Some years later, when I met my spouse-to-be, we could afford to live together on our own as we’d worked hard and moved up the food chain a bit. We were then able to get in debt up to our necks and buy an apartment condo. That’s the way it’s always been unless you worked for a sugar plantation and got low-cost housing as part of your unskilled worker wages. But sugar was put out of business in Hawaii by the combination of increasing costs to do business and foreign price competition even with price regulation via the Sugar Act which only kept prices high enough for mainland growers to survive. So, if you only have a low-level job like a waitress, a sales clerk, a tour boat’s hand, or a dancer in a hula show, you won’t be able to afford to live on your own. Couldn’t back then; can’t now. Of course, add to that the “discovery” of Kauai by off-islanders, many of whom are comfortable retirees, media stars, wealthy professionals or successful business owners, combined with the lack of sufficient development of new housing to keep up with population growth, and made so difficult and costly by our elected officials and anti-development nimbies (both of whom have their own homes), the situation has been exacerbated. This situation has happened in all desirable places in the world. The real issue today is that people think that they should be able to rent or own their own place when they’re just starting out, or hold a low-level, low productivity job. Nope, you’ve got to work hard, become more knowledgeable, skilled and productive, save your money and live with other people until you rise up the food chain. If you don’t, you’ll never have your own place. That’s life.
HINT: As said in the article above, there has long been a dearth of skilled labor such as plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc. If you ever tried to find one, it takes week for them to schedule you and they charge/earn an arm and a leg. So, get skilled, be in demand and live better or live low. It’s your own choice.