HONOLULU — The Hawaii State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) released its Occupational Employment and Wages in Hawaii 2013 publication, which provides comprehensive occupational wage data and a snapshot of the state’s record 662,150 workforce. It is the most frequently requested statistical information of the department. Primary consumers of the information include job seekers, employers, career professionals, educational planners, work force analysts, policy makers and researchers.
The DLIR’s Research & Statistics Office collects the data in a semiannual mail survey over a three-year cycle. In the survey, 3,500 of 5,220 establishments solicited for data provided usable responses, supplying data on 620 occupations – which amounts to a 67 percent response rate and represents 78 percent of the workforce. Follow-up telephone calls and personal visits supplement the information obtained by the mail survey. The DLIR sincerely appreciates the participation of employers that enables the provision of this snapshot.
Highlights include:
· The largest occupational groups in Hawaii are retail sales followed by general office clerks and cashiers.
· The largest groups in non-service occupations include registered nurses, secretaries & administrative assistants, and supervisors of retail sales workers.
· Hawaii wages were generally higher than national average wages, but lower than California for the 20 largest occupations in Hawaii.
· The top five highest paying occupations were different types of physicians. Except for pediatricians, those physicians earned more on average than physicians in California as well as nationally.
The Occupational Employment Statistics Survey is a federal-state survey project conducted semi-annually in all the states following Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) guidelines. Comparisons between the states’ data are valid because the methodology is consistent among all the states.
The Hawaii Workforce Infonet (HIWI) website is a powerful labor market information system. HIWI was specifically designed for employers, job seekers, researchers and analysts, and others seeking economic and workforce information. The system provides fast access to a complete set of data tools in one web site. HIWI is designed to be a comfortable system for everyone, even the person who has little computer experience.