This article from the Advertiser, titled “Federal impact on Hawaii big, rising shows one of the reasons why Hawaii is a unique market and rarely follows mainland trends.
One of the biggest reasons for this is Government, and specifically Military, spending. As you can see, government spending in Hawaii is immense.
“The federal government spent $10,957 per resident here, making it the fifth-highest state in spending on a per capita basis.
The federal government plays an important role in Hawai’i’s economy,” said the report issued by DBEDT’s Research and Economic Analysis Division.
“From an income and job creation point of view, the federal government is the second-largest industry in Hawai’i, with tourism being the largest in the state.”
Of special note is the number of jobs that are created by this spending = 86,318. Keep in mind that many of these jobs are construction as the Military is currently expanding infrastructure on Oahu. Our friends at UHERO do not count these military construction jobs “because there are no building permits to track.” The military does not need building permits for construction on their own lands. Without building permits, the construction jobs created are not included in UHERO’s projections.
They use these projections to predict housing prices, among other things. You can draw your own conclusions about the accuracy of these projections.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Dollars committed reflect the level of commitment. Whether by an individual, company or government. The ongoing increase in dollars shows a long-term fed commitment to Hawaii.
Aloha,
Keahi
April 30th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
It is true that Federal construction projects on Federal land do not require permits, but UHERO makes use of government contracts awarded data from DBEDT and has routinely collected data from developers engaged in large military projects. More importantly, the statement that UHERO does not count these military construction jobs “because there are no building permits to track” is false. I do not know where the quote is supposed to have come from as there is not attribution for the quote in the blog post.
UHERO makes use of jobs data are compiled by the Bureau of Labor statistics and the State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. This data reflects workers employed directly and indirectly in areas serving the US military activities in Hawaii.
Carl Bonham