How do wages and the likelihood of remaining in Hawaiʻi change across bachelor’s-degree programs one, five, and ten years after graduation?
Workforce Understory Episode: Episode Two — Understanding Underemployment
Geography: Statewide
Topic: Graduate earnings, retention, living-wage attainment, and education outcomes
The takeaway
One year after graduation, nearly all University of Hawaiʻi bachelor’s-degree programs shown remain below the living-wage threshold, while most retain between approximately 60% and 85% of graduates in Hawaiʻi.
By year five, a small number of programs reach living-wage earnings, but retention begins to decline.
By year ten, most programs shown have reached or exceeded the living-wage threshold. Retention, however, has fallen substantially across the board—including in some of the programs with the strongest wage outcomes.
Higher earnings do not appear to guarantee that graduates will remain in Hawaiʻi.
What this visualization shows
This visualization compares two outcomes across University of Hawaiʻi bachelor’s-degree programs: graduates’ median wages and the share who remain employed in Hawaiʻi one, five, and ten years after graduation.
In the first year, most programs cluster below the living-wage threshold, but retention remains relatively high. Many graduates appear to begin their careers in Hawaiʻi even when their early wages do not yet provide economic security.
Over time, wages generally increase. By year five, some programs have crossed the living-wage threshold, and by year ten, most programs shown have reached it.
Retention moves in the opposite direction.
As graduates progress through their careers, the share remaining in Hawaiʻi declines across many programs. Some of the highest-wage programs at year ten also have relatively low retention rates.
The visualization does not establish why graduates leave or prove that higher wages cause lower retention. Graduates may relocate for professional advancement, family reasons, specialized opportunities, housing affordability, or other factors not visible in the data.
It does reveal that wage growth and retention do not move together as neatly as workforce leaders might expect.
Why this matters
Hawaiʻi invests significant public and private resources in educating its future workforce. One of the hoped-for outcomes is that graduates will use their knowledge and skills to build careers and contribute to communities here.
This visualization suggests that producing graduates with strong earning potential may not be enough to retain them.
Some graduates may leave because specialized jobs, advancement opportunities, or professional networks are more available elsewhere. Others may be pushed by Hawaiʻi’s cost of living, limited housing, family needs, or the difficulty of building long-term financial security even with comparatively strong wages.
For high-demand fields, sustained outmigration can create a particularly difficult cycle. Hawaiʻi educates talented workers, local employers struggle to retain them, and the state becomes increasingly dependent on recruiting replacements from elsewhere.
The pattern also raises questions about how retention should be understood. Remaining in Hawaiʻi immediately after graduation may not mean someone has found a sustainable career. Conversely, leaving the state may allow a graduate to gain experience and eventually return with skills that strengthen the local workforce.
Communities therefore need to understand not only whether graduates stay, but why they stay, why they leave, and what conditions might enable them to return.
This evidence invites Hawaiʻi to ask:
What combination of wages, career opportunity, housing, belonging, and quality of life enables graduates to build lasting futures in Hawaiʻi?
Evidence:
Questions this visualization helps answer
How many programs reach the living-wage threshold at each stage after graduation?
What share of graduates remains in Hawaiʻi one, five, and ten years after completing a degree?
Do programs with higher wages also retain graduates at higher rates?
How do wage growth and retention change together over time?
Which programs combine relatively strong earnings with relatively high retention?
Does reaching a living wage appear sufficient to keep graduates in Hawaiʻi?
Curiosity:
Questions this visualization raises
Why does retention decline even among graduates from relatively high-wage programs?
Are high-wage graduates being pulled away by stronger career opportunities elsewhere?
Are they being pushed out by housing costs, limited advancement, or other features of Hawaiʻi’s economy?
Which degree programs combine high wages with high retention, and what distinguishes them?
Which programs have high wages but low retention?
Are graduates leaving temporarily to gain experience, or relocating permanently?
How many graduates eventually return to Hawaiʻi?
Do retention patterns differ by occupation, employer, county, or industry?
How do retention outcomes vary by race, gender, family income, birthplace, first-generation status, or island of origin?
Are Neighbor Island graduates more likely to leave because specialized jobs are concentrated on Oʻahu?
Does student debt affect whether graduates can afford to remain in Hawaiʻi?
How do housing costs and household composition change the practical value of the wages shown?
Are employers offering enough opportunities for advancement, specialization, and leadership?
Do internships, local professional networks, or work-based learning increase the likelihood that graduates remain?
Are graduates in public-service fields more likely to stay despite lower wages?
Which fields experience the greatest loss of locally educated talent?
What policies or employer practices could improve retention without relying only on wage increases?
How should Hawaiʻi measure the value of graduates who leave, gain experience, and later return?
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