Which occupation groups are projected to generate the most living-wage job openings in Honolulu County between 2022 and 2032?
Workforce Understory Episode: Season 1, Episode 1 — The Geography of Opportunity
Geography: Honolulu County
Topic: Living-wage opportunity, projected job growth, occupation groups, and economic diversity
The takeaway
Business and Management occupations are projected to account for 30% of Honolulu County’s living-wage job openings between 2022 and 2032.
Construction and Repair occupations represent another 17%, followed by Healthcare at 13%.
Honolulu is also the only county where occupation groups such as Engineering and Technology, Arts and Entertainment, Legal, and Natural and Social Sciences appear visibly within the distribution of projected living-wage openings.
Honolulu’s living-wage economy is both larger and more occupationally diverse than those of Hawaiʻi’s other counties.
What this visualization shows
This visualization compares the distribution of projected living-wage job openings across major occupation groups in Honolulu County.
Business and Management represents the largest share, accounting for nearly one-third of projected living-wage openings. Construction and Repair and Healthcare also contribute substantial numbers of quality employment opportunities.
These leading occupation groups resemble the statewide pattern. What distinguishes Honolulu is the broader range of additional fields represented within its living-wage economy.
Engineering and Technology, Legal, Arts and Entertainment, and Natural and Social Sciences appear at a visible scale in Honolulu but are far less prominent—or largely absent—in the Neighbor Island projections.
This diversity reflects Honolulu’s concentration of large employers, government agencies, universities, healthcare systems, professional services, research institutions, cultural organizations, and corporate headquarters.
The visualization therefore reveals more than which occupation groups are projected to grow. It shows how the structure and scale of a regional economy shape the range of career pathways available to residents.
Why this matters
A diverse living-wage economy gives workers more ways to build sustainable careers.
When quality employment is distributed across multiple occupation groups, people have a broader range of options aligned with their interests, skills, education, and circumstances. Workers may also have more opportunities to move between employers or fields when economic conditions change.
Honolulu’s diversity may make its labor market more resilient than those of smaller counties that depend heavily on a limited number of occupation groups.
But the presence of more pathways does not guarantee equal access to them.
Many of Honolulu’s distinctive fields may require bachelor’s or graduate degrees, specialized experience, professional networks, or proximity to employers concentrated in urban Honolulu. Residents living elsewhere on Oʻahu may face transportation and housing barriers, while Neighbor Island residents may need to relocate to pursue opportunities that do not exist locally at comparable scale.
This creates an important statewide tension. Honolulu’s economic concentration generates opportunities that benefit Hawaiʻi as a whole, but it may also reinforce geographic inequality by locating many specialized living-wage careers in one county.
Communities therefore need to consider both how to make Honolulu’s opportunities more accessible and how to expand the range of living-wage work available in other parts of the state.
This evidence invites Hawaiʻi to ask:
How can Honolulu’s diverse living-wage economy become more accessible while helping other counties develop a broader range of quality career pathways?
Evidence:
Questions this visualization helps answer
What share of Honolulu’s projected living-wage openings is concentrated in Business and Management?
How significant are Construction and Repair and Healthcare within the county’s living-wage economy?
Which living-wage occupation groups appear in Honolulu but not at a comparable scale in the Neighbor Islands?
How diverse is Honolulu’s projected living-wage labor market?
Which parts of the workforce may offer enough opportunity to support coordinated education, training, and employer partnerships?
How does Honolulu’s occupation mix differ from those of Hawaiʻi’s other counties?
Curiosity:
Questions this visualization raises
Which specific occupations account for most of Honolulu’s Business and Management openings?
How accessible are those opportunities to workers without bachelor’s degrees or prior managerial experience?
Which Engineering and Technology occupations are projected to grow, and what education or experience do they require?
What types of Legal, Arts and Entertainment, and Natural and Social Sciences jobs account for Honolulu’s distinctive occupation mix?
Are these specialized pathways accessible to residents throughout Oʻahu, or primarily to people living near urban employment centers?
Can Neighbor Island residents access these careers without permanently relocating to Honolulu?
What role could remote work, hybrid employment, inter-island partnerships, or distributed teams play?
Why do these higher-wage occupation groups exist at scale in Honolulu but not elsewhere in the state?
Which elements of Honolulu’s economic diversity could realistically be developed in Neighbor Island communities?
Which opportunities depend on the concentration of government, higher education, healthcare, research, and large employers that may be difficult to replicate?
How can Neighbor Island economies diversify without simply attempting to reproduce Honolulu’s labor market?
What transportation, housing, education, and professional-network barriers limit equitable access to Honolulu’s living-wage opportunities?
Are Honolulu’s education and training pipelines aligned with projected demand across these varied fields?
Does greater occupation diversity translate into greater resilience during economic disruptions?
Is Honolulu’s living-wage economy becoming more diverse or more concentrated over time?
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