What share of Maui County’s working population consists of STARs versus four-year degree holders?
Workforce Understory Episode: Episode Four — Mobility Through Lifelong Learning
Geography: Maui County
Topic: STARs, workforce composition, upskilling, educational attainment, and regional economic mobility
The takeaway
Among Maui County’s approximately 118,238 workers age 25 and older with earnings, 81,131 are STARs—people who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes rather than holding a four-year degree.
That represents approximately 69% of the county’s working population.
The remaining 37,107 workers, or approximately 31%, hold a four-year degree.
Maui County’s workforce composition closely resembles that of Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi counties, where roughly two-thirds of workers are also STARs. Honolulu has a comparatively lower STAR share of 61%.
More than two out of every three Maui County workers have developed their skills without completing a four-year degree.
What this visualization shows
This visualization divides Maui County’s working population into two broad groups: workers who hold a four-year degree and workers classified as STARs.
STARs have developed valuable skills through routes other than a bachelor’s degree. Those routes may include community college, occupational certificates, apprenticeships, military service, employer training, professional experience, or self-directed learning.
The comparison shows that STARs are the clear majority of Maui County’s workforce.
Approximately 81,131 workers are classified as STARs, compared with 37,107 workers holding four-year degrees. For every worker with a bachelor’s degree, there are more than two workers who developed their skills through alternative routes.
The visualization describes educational attainment rather than workers’ complete abilities. The STAR population includes workers with different credentials, occupations, levels of experience, earnings, and opportunities for advancement.
It also does not reveal whether workers are employed in roles that fully use and reward their skills, or whether bachelor’s-degree requirements prevent experienced STARs from accessing higher-paying positions.
The county-level comparison reveals a broader geographic pattern. Maui, Kauaʻi, and Hawaiʻi counties all have STAR shares of approximately 68% to 69%, while Honolulu’s share is roughly seven to eight percentage points lower.
Why this matters
Maui County’s workforce system must be designed around the people who actually make up its labor force.
A strategy centered primarily on four-year-degree pathways would focus on less than one-third of the county’s workers. It would overlook the experience, occupational knowledge, and advancement needs of more than 81,000 people who developed their skills through other routes.
Maui employers already depend on STAR workers to sustain Hospitality, Healthcare, Construction, Transportation, Retail, Agriculture, public services, and many other parts of the economy.
But access to work is not the same as access to economic mobility.
The county’s continuing dependence on tourism creates both opportunity and vulnerability. Hospitality employs many workers and offers accessible entry points, but large portions of the industry may provide limited wages, unstable hours, or unclear pathways into higher-paying roles.
Upskilling can help workers gain new capabilities, but those capabilities must connect to actual destination jobs. If Maui’s Building industries remain small, workers may complete training without finding enough local positions that recognize their skills and provide living-wage earnings.
This makes economic diversification part of the workforce challenge.
Healthcare, Utilities, Construction, Information and Technology, professional services, and other emerging sectors may offer stronger mobility pathways. But they must grow at sufficient scale, and workers across Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi must be able to access them.
The difference between Honolulu and the Neighbor Islands also raises questions about how geography shapes educational attainment. Oʻahu offers the state’s largest concentration of four-year programs, professional employers, government agencies, and degree-requiring occupations. It may attract degree holders from other counties while providing more opportunities for residents to earn and use bachelor’s degrees locally.
This evidence invites Maui County to ask:
How can the county create enough living-wage destinations for its majority-STAR workforce without relying primarily on the industries and pathways that have historically constrained mobility?
Evidence:
Questions this visualization helps answer
How many Maui County workers are classified as STARs?
How many hold a four-year degree?
What percentage of the county’s working population consists of STARs?
What percentage holds a bachelor’s degree or higher?
Are STARs or four-year-degree holders the majority of Maui County’s workforce?
How many workers could potentially benefit from expanded skills-based hiring and advancement?
How does Maui County’s workforce composition compare with the statewide pattern?
How closely does Maui’s STAR share resemble those of Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi counties?
How does Maui County differ from Honolulu?
Why should the county’s workforce strategy include pathways beyond a four-year degree?
Curiosity:
Questions this visualization raises
Why are Healthcare and Professional Services classified as Building on Kauaʻi but Limited statewide?
Which specific wage, STAR-access, and mobility indicators drive the county-level classifications?
Does Kauaʻi’s lower living-wage threshold affect how these industries are categorized?
Does the island’s occupational mix differ from the statewide mix within Healthcare and Professional Services?
Are Kauaʻi employers offering stronger wages or advancement opportunities within these industries?
Which occupations account for Healthcare’s 537 STAR postings?
How many of those positions currently pay a living wage?
Which healthcare roles are accessible without a bachelor’s degree?
What credentials are required to move from entry-level support roles into higher-paying technical or clinical positions?
Does Kauaʻi have enough training capacity to support those transitions?
Could employers provide paid incumbent-worker training and advancement pathways?
How much of Healthcare’s posting volume reflects persistent vacancies or employee turnover?
Which occupations account for the 415 Professional Services postings?
Are those jobs based physically on Kauaʻi, or do some involve remote or statewide employers?
How many Professional Services employers use unnecessary bachelor’s-degree requirements?
Could skills-based hiring open more of those jobs to experienced STAR workers?
Could remote and hybrid work expand Kauaʻi’s Professional Services pathway?
What broadband, workspace, training, and employer relationships would support remote employment?
Which Construction occupations account for the 133 postings?
Is Construction demand stable enough to support long-term mobility, or is it tied to temporary projects?
Could housing, infrastructure, renewable-energy, or climate-resilience investments expand Construction opportunity?
Why is Administrative and Support Services Kauaʻi’s only Anchor?
Which occupations within that industry provide the strongest wages and advancement?
Is its large posting volume partly driven by turnover?
What would be required for Healthcare or Professional Services to become Anchor industries?
Why are Real Estate and Transportation and Warehousing classified as Partial?
Which occupations in those sectors offer strong mobility, and which remain below a living wage?
What jobs are contained within the 1,564 Unclassified postings?
Would assigning those postings to industries materially change the county’s opportunity picture?
How are Anchor and Building opportunities distributed geographically across Kauaʻi?
Can workers without reliable transportation access these jobs and training pathways?
How many of the nearly 7,000 STAR workers within reach of a living wage could the current Building industries realistically absorb?
Would expanding training create more qualified workers than local employers can hire?
Which sectors should receive the greatest near-term workforce investment?
Should Kauaʻi concentrate on Healthcare as the largest Building opportunity or maintain a more diversified strategy?
What evidence would show that Building industries are becoming larger, more accessible, and more effective at producing mobility?
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