Islands have best job market since 1991
By Sean Hao and Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writers
Searching for a job in Hawai'i just got a lot easier.
Driven by a robust real-estate and construction market and growing tourism sector, the state's jobless rate fell last month to the lowest in the nation. May's seasonally adjusted rate of 3 percent, which was down from 3.6 percent in April, also was the lowest rate for Hawai'i since October 1991.
"If you're looking for a job, you shouldn't be having a hard time, assuming you have the requisite skills," said University of Hawai'i economist Carl Bonham.
It took former restaurant manager Kamu Dickson about six weeks to get a new job, but only because Dickson held out for exactly what she wanted — sales representative for Paradise Beverages.
"I was very picky about what I wanted to do and what I didn't want to do," said Dickson, 26. "Now, I'm very satisfied."
In May, Dickson was hired to spend 90 percent of her time selling wine, liquor and beer for Paradise Beverages to restaurants, bars and mom-and-pop grocery stores.
"I'm glad I waited," Dickson said. "Working in the restaurant before, I would see these people all of the time. They're very social people. They get to be in the restaurant environment yet not be in the one place for 10 hours a day."
Joel Simmons, 24, received five or six job offers but chose Barnes & Noble Booksellers because it offered full-time hours, complete benefits and flexible hours to pursue a master's degree at the University of Hawai'i.
New hires such as Dickson boosted the total number of employed in May to 610,750, compared with 589,400 in May 2003. About 19,050 people were reported unemployed last month, compared with 26,450 who were jobless in May 2003, according to figures released Monday night by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.
If there is a down side to the good job numbers, it is that low unemployment can increase costs for employers. As workers become more scarce wages will rise, Bonham said.
The unemployment figures don't count discouraged workers who have stopped searching for jobs. However, given the strong employment outlook, that population also should be shrinking, Bonham said.
The unemployment numbers appear to show a rise in the ranks of self-employed or those working at small businesses rather than large corporations, Bonham added.
Among the major islands, O'ahu had the best performance. Its jobless rate dipped to 2.6 percent, compared with 3.7 percent a year ago, on a nonseasonally adjusted basis. On the Big Island, May's jobless rate was 4.7 percent, versus 6.8 percent the year before.
Maui County, which includes Lana'i and Moloka'i, recorded a jobless rate of 3.1 percent, which was down from 4.3 percent in May 2003. Kaua'i's rate fell to 3.6 percent from 4.8 percent in the year-ago period. Moloka'i's rate was 11.1 percent compared with 13.5 percent a year ago.
Although more jobs are available, they don't always pay the salary people are looking for. State jobless figures don't include details on wages, but 11,100 of the new jobs created during the past year — the most of all sectors — came in the service-producing portion of the state's economy.
That is one factor behind the high number of jobs per family in Hawai'i and the state's low home-ownership rate, said Mike Fitzgerald, president and chief executive of Enterprise Honolulu, an economic development agency.
"Many of those jobs are not living-wage jobs," Fitzgerald said. "If they're in the service industry they're in the $18,000 to $21,000 range. If they're better than that, they're in the $30,000 to $32,000 range."
However, there are signs of growth in high-wage jobs. Since 2002, as many as 1,496 new jobs were created paying an average $53,342 per year at 220 companies assisted by Enterprise Honolulu, the organization reported yesterday.
Many of those jobs were created in targeted industries such as biotechnology, astronomy and technology, Fitzgerald said. Enterprise Honolulu's goal is to help such businesses generate a net new 2,000 jobs a year paying an average yearly salary of more than $50,000.
"That will significantly start to change the pace of Hawai'i's economy," he said.
Despite optimism surrounding the state's technology sector the state lost 1,100, or 9.4 percent of its information technology jobs between May 2004 and May 2003, according to state figures.
Reach Sean Hao at 525-8093 or shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.
