State Workforce Investment Board

Workforce Development Council
James Hardway, Executive Director
Department of Labor and Industrial Relations
830 Punchbowl St. #417
Honolulu, HI 96813
Phone: 808-586-8671
Fax: 808-586-8674
Email: jhardway@hawaii.gov

Key Workforce Priorities

1. Improve the delivery of timely education and training to prepare current and future workers for high skill occupations.
2. Focus more attention on upgrading the skills of incumbent workers.
3. Expand the labor pool in the face of a long term labor shortage.
4. Address the need for workforce housing.

Fast Facts

• Hawaii has one of the fastest growing populations of people over 65, which will grow by 78% by 2030 at which time they will constitute 20% of the population. There are numerous shortages in long term care occupations in facilities, which due to an increase in home-based care are now receiving patients who are much sicker and require higher levels of care.
• Survey results from the LMI Improvement Grant initiative shows that while “green jobs” constituted 2.4% of total private employment in 2009. Between 2010 and 2012, greens are expected to increase by 26% or 2.9% of total employment.
• The average unemployment rate in 2007 was 2.7%, but rose quickly to 4.0% in 2008 and 6.8% in 2009. While still low by national standards, there was higher unemployment on the neighbor island counties of Hawaii, Maui and Kauai of 9.7%, 8.6% and 9.3% respectively, while Honolulu County remained lower at 5.7%. Due to the high cost of inter-island travel, there is limited mobility for many residents in neighbor island counties to obtain employment in Honolulu County (Oahu).

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