Across Maui County’s industries, where are STAR workers finding job postings, and how does that vary by opportunity classification?
Workforce Understory Episode: Episode Four — Mobility Through Lifelong Learning
Geography: Maui County
Topic: STARs, industry opportunity, occupation groups, upskilling, and economic mobility
The takeaway
Maui County has relatively little STAR job-posting volume within its strongest Anchor classification. Utilities accounts for 122 postings, while Mining and Quarrying has 23—a combined total of only 145.
The county’s Building industries operate at much greater scale. Hospitality leads with 1,602 STAR postings, followed by Healthcare with 1,112 and Construction with 204. Together, the three Building industries account for 2,918 postings.
Administrative and Support Services leads the Partial category with 1,529 postings, followed by Transportation and Warehousing with 548.
The largest single category is Unclassified, with 1,984 postings. Retail adds another 994 within the Limited classification.
Maui County’s strongest near-term possibilities lie in Hospitality and Healthcare: two high-volume industries that show emerging mobility potential locally, even though neither performs as favorably in the statewide analysis.
What this visualization shows
This visualization compares Maui County job postings accessible to STAR workers across four opportunity classifications:
Anchor
Building
Partial
Limited
The framework considers the number of STAR-accessible postings alongside indicators related to wages and economic mobility. It is designed to distinguish industries that currently provide stronger opportunity from those that show promise, offer mixed conditions, or remain limited.
Maui County’s Anchor category is small. Utilities has 122 postings, while Mining and Quarrying has only 23. These sectors may offer favorable conditions for STAR workers, but their limited scale means they cannot serve as the primary pathway for a large share of the county’s workforce.
The Building category presents a different picture.
Hospitality has 1,602 STAR postings and Healthcare has 1,112. Construction adds 204. These industries do not yet meet every condition associated with an Anchor, but their combination of posting volume and favorable county-level indicators suggests meaningful potential for worker advancement.
Hospitality is especially notable because it is classified as Building in Maui County rather than Partial in the statewide analysis. Healthcare is also Building locally rather than Limited statewide.
Administrative and Support Services leads the Partial category with 1,529 postings. Transportation and Warehousing contributes another 548. These industries offer substantial STAR access and some favorable opportunity conditions, but their wages or mobility outcomes may be inconsistent across occupations.
Within the Limited category, Unclassified postings account for 1,984 opportunities and Retail accounts for 994. Because Unclassified is not a coherent industry, its large volume should be interpreted cautiously. Those postings may represent multiple industries that could not be reliably assigned within the analysis.
Why this matters
Maui County’s opportunity structure differs from the statewide pattern in ways that could shape a place-based workforce strategy.
Hospitality and Healthcare combine substantial STAR hiring demand with a Building classification. Together, they represent 2,714 postings and appear to offer the clearest near-term scale for worker advancement.
Healthcare may provide pathways through support, administrative, technical, and clinical occupations. The challenge is connecting accessible entry roles to higher-paying positions through employer-supported training, stackable credentials, and clear advancement structures.
Hospitality presents a more complicated opportunity.
The industry is central to Maui County’s economy and already employs many STAR workers. A Building classification suggests that parts of the sector may provide stronger wages or mobility than the statewide picture implies.
But Hospitality includes occupations with widely different earnings, hours, benefits, and advancement potential. High posting volume could reflect genuine opportunity, persistent turnover, or both. Determining which employers and occupations produce durable mobility is essential before treating the entire industry as a promising pathway.
Administrative and Support Services illustrates the difference between access and advancement. Its 1,529 postings create many potential entry points, but its Partial classification suggests that those jobs do not consistently provide strong wages or economic progression.
The small Anchor category creates another constraint. Utilities may offer strong outcomes, but 122 postings cannot support mobility for the nearly 14,700 Maui County STAR workers identified as being within $20,000 of a living wage.
Maui County must therefore strengthen its Building industries while improving the quality of its highest-volume Partial and Limited jobs. That may involve employer-driven career ladders, skills-based hiring, paid advancement, stronger wages and scheduling, and investment in industries that diversify the county’s economic base.
The geographic structure of Maui County also matters. Opportunities visible in countywide data may be concentrated on Maui and inaccessible to residents of Molokaʻi or Lānaʻi. A county strategy must examine whether pathways exist across all three islands or whether shared, remote, and interisland models are needed.
This evidence invites Maui County to ask:
Can Hospitality and Healthcare become durable mobility engines while the county improves job quality in the industries where most STAR workers currently find employment?
Evidence:
Questions this visualization helps answer
Which Maui County industries contain the largest numbers of STAR-accessible job postings?
Which industries are classified as Anchors?
How many postings are associated with Utilities and Mining and Quarrying?
Which industries make up the Building category?
How many postings do Hospitality, Healthcare, and Construction represent individually and collectively?
Which industries lead the Partial category?
Which Limited categories contain the greatest posting volume?
Where does Maui County currently show the strongest emerging potential for STAR mobility?
How does Hospitality’s county classification differ from its statewide classification?
How does Healthcare’s county classification differ from the statewide result?
Does high posting volume necessarily indicate strong economic-mobility potential?
How much of Maui County’s STAR demand remains concentrated outside the Anchor and Building categories?
Curiosity:
Questions this visualization raises
Which industries and occupations are included in the Unclassified category?
Why could 1,984 postings not be assigned to a specific industry classification?
Would classifying those postings materially change Maui County’s opportunity picture?
Why is Hospitality classified as Building in Maui County but Partial statewide?
Which wage, STAR-access, and mobility indicators drive that difference?
Does Maui County’s occupational mix within Hospitality differ from the statewide mix?
Are Maui employers offering higher wages or stronger advancement pathways?
How much of Hospitality’s posting volume reflects turnover?
Which Hospitality occupations consistently provide living-wage earnings?
Can entry-level workers advance into supervisory, technical, sales, operations, or management roles?
What employer practices distinguish stronger Hospitality pathways from weaker ones?
Why is Healthcare classified as Building in Maui County but Limited statewide?
Which healthcare occupations account for the 1,112 postings?
How many are accessible without a four-year degree?
Which roles already pay a living wage?
What credentials or employer-supported training would help workers advance?
Does Maui County have enough healthcare education and clinical-placement capacity?
Could Healthcare grow sufficiently to absorb more workers?
Why is Construction classified as Building despite having only 204 postings?
Could rebuilding, housing, infrastructure, renewable-energy, or resilience projects expand its scale?
Are Construction opportunities durable or dependent on temporary projects?
Why does Administrative and Support Services remain Partial despite 1,529 postings?
Which occupations within that industry provide meaningful wage progression?
Is its posting volume partly driven by unstable employment or repeated vacancies?
What prevents Transportation and Warehousing from becoming a Building industry?
Which Utilities occupations are accessible to STAR workers?
Can the Anchor category grow beyond its current 145 postings?
Does Retail’s 994-posting volume reflect opportunity, turnover, or continuing low-wage demand?
Which Limited-industry jobs could be redesigned to offer stronger wages and advancement?
How many of Maui County’s nearly 14,700 within-reach STAR workers could the Building industries realistically absorb?
Would expanded training produce more qualified workers than employers can hire?
Should Maui prioritize Hospitality and Healthcare because they combine scale with Building status?
How much should the county invest in economic diversification beyond tourism?
How are Anchor and Building opportunities distributed across Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi?
Can residents of all three islands access the necessary training and jobs?
Could remote instruction, shared statewide programs, or interisland employer partnerships expand access?
What data would show whether Maui County’s Building industries are becoming stronger and more inclusive mobility pathways?
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