Across Hawaiʻi’s industries, where are STAR workers finding job opportunities, and how does posting volume vary by opportunity classification?
Workforce Understory Episode: Episode Four — Mobility Through Lifelong Learning
Geography: Statewide
Topic: STARs, industry opportunity, job postings, job quality, and economic mobility
The takeaway
Administrative and Support Services stands apart as Hawaiʻi’s sole Anchor industry, with 20,122 job postings accessible to STAR workers.
Several Building industries offer fewer openings but show meaningful potential for economic mobility. These include Information and Technology, with 2,636 STAR job postings, and Construction, with 2,137.
Hospitality has the largest number of postings among Partial industries, at 5,911.
Some Limited industries also employ or recruit large numbers of STAR workers. Healthcare has 9,771 STAR job postings, while the Unclassified category contains 16,199. Their classification indicates that high posting volume does not necessarily translate into consistently strong mobility opportunities.
The industries offering STAR workers the most jobs are not always the industries offering the clearest paths to economic advancement.
What this visualization shows
This visualization compares the number of job postings accessible to STAR workers across Hawaiʻi industries and organizes those industries into four opportunity classifications:
Anchor
Building
Partial
Limited
The classifications help distinguish the scale of hiring from the quality and direction of the opportunity available.
Administrative and Support Services is the only industry classified as an Anchor. It combines a large number of STAR-accessible postings with stronger indicators of wages and upward mobility than the other sectors shown.
Building industries such as Construction and Information and Technology have lower posting volume, but they show promising conditions for stronger STAR mobility. Their classification suggests that these industries already contain important components of opportunity, even if access, scale, or career progression is not yet fully developed.
Partial industries offer some favorable conditions but do not yet provide a consistently strong mobility pathway. Hospitality, for example, has considerable STAR hiring volume, but the quality and advancement potential of those jobs may vary widely.
Limited industries may contain many jobs accessible to STAR workers without consistently delivering living-wage earnings or advancement. Healthcare is especially important to examine because it contains substantial STAR demand while also encompassing many lower-paid support and caregiving roles alongside highly paid professional occupations.
The Unclassified category should be interpreted cautiously. Its large posting count may combine jobs that could not be placed reliably within the analytical framework rather than representing a coherent industry with shared opportunity conditions.
Why this matters
Most Hawaiʻi workers are STARs, but STAR access alone does not guarantee economic mobility.
A sector can offer thousands of jobs that do not pay a living wage, reward accumulated skills, or provide a realistic route into higher-level positions. High hiring volume may reflect turnover, occupational shortages, or large numbers of entry-level roles rather than strong career opportunity.
Healthcare illustrates this tension. The sector has substantial demand for STAR workers, but many accessible roles may sit below living-wage levels or lack clear advancement pathways into higher-paid occupations. Increasing recruitment into those jobs without improving wages and mobility could fill vacancies without improving workers’ economic circumstances.
Construction and Information and Technology present a different opportunity. Their current STAR posting volume is smaller, but their classification suggests stronger potential to connect workers with living-wage careers or advancement.
That does not mean workers should simply be redirected from one sector to another. Each industry has different entry requirements, working conditions, geographic availability, and capacity to absorb additional workers.
The more useful question is where targeted investment could improve both access and mobility.
For Building industries, that might mean expanding training, apprenticeships, employer partnerships, and clearly sequenced advancement routes. For high-volume Limited industries, it may require improving wages, redesigning jobs, recognizing experience, and building bridges from frontline roles into higher-paying occupations.
This evidence invites Hawaiʻi to ask:
Which industries need a stronger talent pipeline—and which need better jobs and clearer mobility pathways for the workers they already employ?
Evidence:
Questions this visualization helps answer
Which industry has the greatest number of STAR-accessible job postings?
Why is Administrative and Support Services classified as the only Anchor industry?
Which Building industries show promising mobility potential?
Which Partial industry offers the largest posting volume?
Which Limited industries recruit substantial numbers of STAR workers?
Does a high number of STAR job postings necessarily indicate strong economic opportunity?
How can industries with fewer postings still represent important mobility opportunities?
Curiosity:
Questions this visualization raises
What specific indicators place Administrative and Support Services in the Anchor category?
Which occupations account for its unusually large STAR posting volume?
Does the category include professional and technical business-service roles as well as lower-wage administrative support work?
How much wage and advancement variation exists within the industry?
Why are Construction and Information and Technology classified as Building rather than Anchor industries?
What barriers currently limit STAR entry or advancement in those fields?
Could these industries absorb substantially more STAR workers without weakening employment outcomes?
Which credentials, experiences, or skills provide the strongest entry points?
Why does Healthcare remain Limited despite its high demand for STAR workers?
Which healthcare occupations are driving the 9,771 postings?
How many of those jobs pay a living wage?
What bridges could help healthcare support workers advance into higher-paid clinical, technical, or administrative roles?
Does Hospitality’s high Partial-industry volume reflect strong demand, high turnover, or both?
Which Hospitality occupations provide meaningful advancement, and which remain persistently low wage?
What jobs are included in the Unclassified category?
Would classifying those postings change the apparent distribution of industry opportunity?
How do industry classifications vary across counties?
Are Building industries accessible to workers on every island?
How do race, gender, age, disability, and prior work experience shape STAR access within each industry?
Which industries are improving their STAR wage and advancement outcomes over time?
Should workforce investment prioritize expanding entry into Building industries, improving job quality in Limited industries, or both?
What employer practices most effectively turn STAR hiring into long-term economic mobility?
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