Living Hawaii: Some Reasons Not to Start a Career in Honolulu
The high cost of living is key to why Honolulu ranks low on a list of cities for career-starting potential.
We hear a lot about Hawaii鈥檚 brain drain, and for good reason.
Many young locals head to the mainland to seek out better salaries, a lower cost of living and a fuller range of career opportunities. When they find what they are looking for, some decide to stay for good. Others find themselves wondering whether they will ever be able to come home.
Some possible brain-drain candidates will soon be receiving their diplomas, even as their parents fret about their children鈥檚 future in comments on Civil Beat鈥檚 series on the high cost of living.
So it is interesting to look at some broad comparative data on where our state鈥檚 economic motor, Honolulu, sits on a list of American cities when it comes to starting a career.
Some young adults in Honolulu, like these students at Pearl City High, live in a city that is not considered to be an ideal place to start a career.
Courtesy Pearl City High School
The answer, according to WalletHub鈥檚 list of , is not very good. Of the 150 U.S. cities in the ranking, Honolulu placed 101st 鈥 behind Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which isn鈥檛 exactly famed as a bastion of opportunity.
A look at some of the 19 metrics that WalletHub used to rank cities with thriving or stagnant job markets quickly reveals why Honolulu鈥檚 does so poorly. When starter-salaries are placed in contrast to the cost of living, Hawaii鈥檚 capital ranks third from the bottom in the list of 150 cities. As for housing affordability 鈥 when prices and starter-incomes are factored together 鈥 Honolulu ranks dead last.
Overall, Honolulu would have slid down the list if some Hawaii-friendly secondary data elements weren’t factored in. These included the appeal of a city鈥檚 鈥渟ocial scenes,鈥 the number of leisure and recreational establishments, and the unemployment rate which, in Honolulu, is just under 4 percent.
Given the improving employment climate nationally and surveys suggesting that employers plan to hire more fresh college graduates in the coming months, it will be interesting to see if young career-starters in Honolulu begin to enjoy more opportunities and better salaries.
If not, more of them may feel the pull of the mainland.
Do you have a story about the human impact of the cost of living in the islands, whether about you or someone you know? If so, click on the red button with the pencil and share it through Connections, or drop me a note at epape@civilbeat.com.
You can also continue the broader conversation and discuss practical and political solutions by joining Civil Beat鈥檚 in Hawaii.
