Which University of Hawaiʻi degree programs simultaneously lead to living-wage earnings and retain graduates in Hawaiʻi five years after graduation?
Workforce Understory Episode: Episode Two — Understanding Underemployment
Geography: Statewide
Topic: Graduate wages, retention, job quality, and education outcomes
The takeaway
Five years after graduation, most University of Hawaiʻi degree programs fall into one of two quadrants: Low Wage / High Retention or Low Wage / Low Retention.
A smaller group of programs achieves both living-wage earnings and relatively strong graduate retention. Several other high-wage programs fall into the High Wage / Low Retention quadrant, indicating that strong earnings alone do not guarantee that graduates will remain in Hawaiʻi.
The largest opportunity may lie in programs that already retain graduates but do not yet provide living-wage earnings.
What this visualization shows
This visualization compares two outcomes for University of Hawaiʻi degree programs five years after graduation: median wages and the share of graduates who remain in Hawaiʻi.
Placing programs on a four-quadrant matrix makes the tradeoffs visible.
Programs in the High Wage / High Retention quadrant appear to offer the strongest combined outcome. Graduates are reaching living-wage earnings while also remaining connected to Hawaiʻi’s workforce.
Programs in the High Wage / Low Retention quadrant produce strong financial outcomes, but many graduates leave the state. Fields such as Computer Science and Environmental Design may fall into this category because local employer demand, advancement opportunities, or specialized roles are not available at sufficient scale.
Programs in the Low Wage / Low Retention quadrant face a dual challenge. Graduates are neither reaching living-wage earnings nor remaining in Hawaiʻi at high rates.
The Low Wage / High Retention quadrant tells a different story. Programs such as Education, Social Work, and Public Administration may successfully prepare graduates for locally needed careers and retain them in Hawaiʻi, yet those workers remain below the living-wage threshold.
That quadrant points less to a pipeline problem than to a job-quality problem.
Why this matters
Workforce leaders often focus on whether Hawaiʻi can attract, educate, and retain enough people in high-need fields.
This matrix shows that retention alone is not enough.
If graduates remain in Hawaiʻi but continue earning below a living wage, the system may be meeting employer demand by relying on workers to absorb the financial cost of essential public and community service.
That is especially concerning in fields such as Education, Social Work, and Public Administration. These programs may be doing many things well: preparing graduates for local careers, connecting them to employers, and keeping them in Hawaiʻi. The problem emerges after the pipeline succeeds.
The jobs themselves do not provide sufficient economic security.
The matrix also shows why high-wage programs require a different response. Computer Science, Environmental Design, and similar fields may produce strong earnings, but local industries may not offer enough positions, specialization, or advancement to retain graduates over time.
Each quadrant therefore calls for a different strategy:
Low Wage / High Retention: improve compensation and job quality.
High Wage / Low Retention: strengthen local employer demand and career advancement.
Low Wage / Low Retention: reassess both program-to-career alignment and job quality.
High Wage / High Retention: understand what is working and protect or expand it thoughtfully.
This evidence invites Hawaiʻi to ask:
What would it take to move more degree programs toward living-wage earnings and long-term retention at the same time?
Evidence:
Questions this visualization helps answer
Which programs fall into the High Wage / High Retention quadrant?
How many programs retain graduates despite producing below-living-wage earnings?
Which high-wage programs struggle to keep graduates in Hawaiʻi?
Which programs face both low wages and low retention?
Do strong wage outcomes and strong retention usually occur together?
What different workforce challenges are visible across the four quadrants?
Curiosity:
Questions this visualization raises
Why do programs such as Computer Science and Environmental Design produce strong wages but relatively low retention?
Are graduates in those fields leaving because Hawaiʻi lacks enough employers, specialized roles, or advancement opportunities?
Which employers or industries would need to grow to retain more high-wage graduates?
Why do Education, Social Work, and Public Administration retain graduates despite low wages?
Are workers in those fields staying because of public-service commitment, family ties, professional licensing, or limited mobility?
What policy or funding changes could move those programs from Low Wage / High Retention into High Wage / High Retention?
How much would wages need to rise for those fields to meet the living-wage threshold?
What role do public-sector salary schedules, reimbursement rates, nonprofit funding, and state budgets play?
Which programs in the Low Wage / Low Retention quadrant should be examined most closely?
Are those programs preparing students for jobs that do not exist locally at sufficient scale?
Do graduates from lower-wage programs eventually reach living-wage earnings after the five-year window?
Which High Wage / High Retention programs offer practices that could be adapted elsewhere?
How do internships, employer partnerships, licensure pathways, and career navigation affect quadrant placement?
How do outcomes differ by campus, county, race, gender, income, or first-generation status?
Are graduates remaining in Hawaiʻi but working outside the fields in which they studied?
How should Hawaiʻi distinguish between a workforce-pipeline problem, an employer-demand problem, and a job-quality problem?
Are programs moving between quadrants over time?
Youth Perspective
Contributor: Hawaiʻi Island Resident, Age 19
The Low Wage / High Retention quadrant may be the most important part of this visualization. Hawaiʻi is already educating and keeping graduates in fields like Education, Social Work, and Public Administration, yet many of the jobs waiting for them still do not pay a living wage. In those cases the pipeline is not the problem, job quality is. Mission-driven workers should not have to accept long-term financial insecurity as the price of serving their communities. I would want employers and policymakers to look hard at compensation, advancement, and funding structures in these fields. Moving these programs into the High Wage / High Retention quadrant may be one of Hawaiʻi's clearest opportunities.
