Posted on: Tuesday, November 11, 2003

EDITORIAL
Census data put a face on our woes

A recent brief report out of the U.S. Census underscores once again the far-reaching impact of the economic slump Hawai'i had experienced over the past several years.

And it serves as an additional warning that our long-term economic health depends on developing sustainable, high-quality jobs for our own people and those who would move here.

It has already been reported that Hawai'i led all 50 states in the amount of out-migration over the past half decade.

The latest information from the Census puts a face on those numbers.

During that time, the Census said, 6,738 single, college-educated people between the ages of 25 and 39 moved to Hawai'i. But 8,895 in that category left.

In short, we're losing our best and our brightest.

Now, no one would want to deny any ambitious young person the opportunity to go off elsewhere and test his skills against others. There will always be a tide of people leaving the Islands and a tide of others arriving. But what these numbers suggest is that too many of our potentially most productive people are leaving not because they want to, but because they have to.

We cannot sit idly by and watch such numbers continue. As a community, we must pull together to produce the kind of economic opportunities that not only will hang on to the best of what we produce locally but draw in ambitious folks from elsewhere.