What share of Honolulu’s working population consists of STARs versus four-year degree holders?
Workforce Understory Episode: Episode Four — Mobility Through Lifelong Learning
Geography: Honolulu County
Topic: STARs, workforce composition, educational attainment, and geographic opportunity
The takeaway
Among Honolulu County’s approximately 708,997 workers age 25 and older with earnings, 433,513 are STARs—people who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes rather than holding a four-year degree.
That represents approximately 61% of Honolulu’s working population.
The remaining 275,484 workers, or approximately 39%, hold a four-year degree.
Honolulu has the lowest STAR share and the highest concentration of four-year-degree holders among Hawaiʻi’s counties. Even so, STARs remain the clear majority of its workforce.
Nearly two out of every three Honolulu workers have developed their skills without completing a bachelor’s degree.
What this visualization shows
This visualization divides Honolulu County’s working population into two broad groups: workers with a four-year degree and workers classified as STARs.
STARs have developed valuable skills through pathways other than a bachelor’s degree. Those pathways may include community college, occupational certificates, apprenticeships, military service, employer training, professional experience, or self-directed learning.
Honolulu’s workforce includes approximately 433,513 STARs and 275,484 four-year-degree holders. For every two workers with a bachelor’s degree, there are more than three workers skilled through alternative routes.
Compared with the Neighbor Islands, Honolulu has a larger degree-holder share. Approximately 39% of its workers hold four-year degrees, compared with roughly one-third or less in the other counties.
That difference may reflect several overlapping factors. Oʻahu contains the state’s largest concentration of four-year educational programs, professional occupations, state government agencies, large employers, research institutions, and corporate headquarters. It may also attract degree holders from the Neighbor Islands and outside Hawaiʻi who relocate to access a broader range of jobs.
The visualization describes educational attainment rather than workers’ complete capabilities. The STAR population includes people with widely different credentials, experience, occupations, earnings, and access to advancement.
It also does not reveal where workers were educated, where they previously lived, or whether degree holders moved to Honolulu specifically for employment.
Why this matters
Honolulu offers Hawaiʻi’s largest and most diverse labor market. It contains a broader range of professional, technical, government, healthcare, business, and education jobs than any other county.
That larger opportunity base may help explain why Honolulu has the state’s highest concentration of degree holders.
But the county’s workforce is still predominantly made up of STARs.
A workforce strategy designed primarily around bachelor’s-degree holders would overlook more than 430,000 Honolulu workers. Employers across the county already depend on people who developed their skills through employment, community college, credentials, military experience, and other non-degree pathways.
At the same time, Honolulu’s comparatively high degree-holder share raises important questions about the geographic concentration of opportunity.
Neighbor Island residents may move to Oʻahu to attend college, access specialized programs, or pursue professional careers unavailable in their home counties. If they remain in Honolulu after graduation, Oʻahu may benefit from talent developed across the state while Neighbor Island communities lose workers with advanced education and specialized skills.
Honolulu may also attract degree holders from outside Hawaiʻi because employers rely on credentials as a hiring filter or because local education systems do not produce enough graduates in particular fields.
None of these explanations can be confirmed through this visualization alone. But the county difference suggests that educational attainment and economic opportunity may be reinforcing one another geographically.
Places with more degree-requiring jobs attract and retain more degree holders. Their concentration may then encourage employers to continue using bachelor’s degrees as a default signal of readiness, even for roles that experienced STAR workers could perform successfully.
This evidence invites Honolulu to ask:
Is the county’s higher degree-holder concentration expanding opportunity for the state—or concentrating talent and living-wage careers on Oʻahu?
Evidence:
Questions this visualization helps answer
How many Honolulu County workers are classified as STARs?
How many hold a four-year degree?
What percentage of Honolulu’s working population consists of STARs?
What percentage holds a bachelor’s degree or higher?
Are STARs or degree holders the majority of Honolulu’s workforce?
How does Honolulu’s workforce composition differ from that of the Neighbor Islands?
Which county has Hawaiʻi’s lowest STAR share?
Which county has the highest share of four-year-degree holders?
How many Honolulu workers could be affected by expanded skills-based hiring and advancement practices?
Why should Honolulu’s workforce strategy include pathways beyond the bachelor’s degree?
Curiosity:
Questions this visualization raises
Why does Honolulu have a larger degree-holder share than the Neighbor Islands?
How much of the difference reflects greater access to four-year higher education on Oʻahu?
How much reflects the concentration of degree-requiring jobs in Honolulu?
Is Honolulu attracting degree holders who were raised or educated on the Neighbor Islands?
How many Neighbor Island students attend college on Oʻahu and remain there after graduation?
Which occupations draw degree holders from other counties into Honolulu?
How many Honolulu degree holders moved to Hawaiʻi from outside the state?
Is Honolulu functioning as a degree-holder magnet for the broader Pacific region?
Do degree holders who relocate to Honolulu experience stronger wage outcomes than those who remain on the Neighbor Islands?
Which industries account for Honolulu’s comparatively high concentration of degree holders?
In which Honolulu industries and occupations are STAR workers concentrated?
Which Honolulu occupations offer living-wage earnings without requiring a bachelor’s degree?
Are STARs and degree holders performing similar work within any industries?
How large are the wage differences between STARs and degree holders working in comparable occupations?
Which Honolulu employers use bachelor’s degrees as a default screening requirement?
How many of those requirements are necessary for successful job performance?
Are employers more likely to use degree requirements because Honolulu has a relatively large supply of degree holders?
Could greater use of skills-based hiring expand opportunity for STAR workers without reducing job quality?
How many Honolulu STARs are underemployed or working below their skill level?
Which alternative credentials produce the strongest economic returns in Honolulu?
Do STAR workers have access to advancement within the county’s professional and technical industries?
How do workforce outcomes differ among STARs by race, gender, age, disability, income, and educational experience?
Are state government and other public-sector employers removing unnecessary degree requirements?
Does the geographic concentration of degree holders contribute to workforce shortages on the Neighbor Islands?
Which professional jobs could be distributed more broadly across counties through remote or hybrid work?
Could stronger Neighbor Island industries reduce the movement of degree holders toward Honolulu?
How should statewide workforce strategy balance the benefits of Honolulu’s large labor market with the need to develop opportunity across every island?
What data would allow Hawaiʻi to track where workers were educated, where they work, and how they move among counties over time?
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