How Job Quality in America Compares to Hawaiʻi’s Workforce Reality
October 2025
Launched by Jobs for the Future (JFF) in collaboration with its research partners—Gallup, The Families & Workers Fund, and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research—the American Job Quality Study offers one of the most comprehensive assessments to date of how workers across the country experience their jobs. Drawing on responses from more than 18,000 workers, it is the first nationally representative survey to measure job quality across the entire U.S. workforce.
The findings reveal a stark and urgent reality: 60% of U.S. workers do not have access to quality jobs—positions that offer fair pay, safety, growth opportunities, autonomy, and a meaningful voice in workplace decisions. These gaps are strongly linked to lower overall well-being, reduced satisfaction, and higher instability, all of which have major implications for retention, productivity, and long-term business performance.
In Hawai‘i, these insights carry particular resonance. Through HWFC’s reports—A Good Job in Hawai‘i, From Crisis to Opportunity, and the Hawai‘i Workforce Funding Review—we define a “good job” not only through financial stability or career advancement, but through our ability to remain rooted in Hawai‘i, support ʻohana, contribute to community, and thrive in place. While the AJQS provides a national benchmark for job quality, HWFC’s Hawai‘i-based framework expands this lens to reflect our state’s unique cultural values, high cost of living, and commitment to equity. Together, these aligned perspectives underscore an essential truth: improving job quality is not just a workforce strategy—it is central to Hawai‘i’s future resilience, community well-being, and economic prosperity.
How Job Quality in America Compares to Hawaiʻi’s Workforce Reality
As Hawaiʻi continues to rebuild and reimagine its workforce systems, the newly released 2025 State of the U.S. Labor Force report offers powerful insights into the state of job quality across the nation. When viewed alongside the Hawaiʻi Workforce Funders Collaborative’s (HWFC) research and other existing resources such as AUW’s ALICE in Hawai’i 2024 Report —a clear picture emerges: Hawaiʻi shares many national challenges, but our local context raises the stakes even higher.
Below are four key highlights that connect national findings to what we’re seeing here at home.
KEY INSIGHTS
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Nationally, just four in ten workers meet basic job-quality standards like fair pay, career growth, safety, and predictable scheduling.
HWFC’s research reinforces that in Hawaiʻi, a “good job” must go further—it must allow workers to remain in Hawaiʻi, support ʻohana, and thrive culturally and economically. Job quality here is not just economic—it’s tied to identity, belonging, and place. -
The AJQS report shows widespread “voice gaps”:
55% of U.S. workers feel they lack input on key decisions
62% lack stable or predictable schedules
Hawaiʻi’s community-based pilots echo this reality, especially among service-industry, youth, and underrepresented workers. Both national and local data point to the need for systems that give workers greater stability, autonomy, and influence in their work lives.
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Nearly 29% of U.S. workers report they are “just getting by” or struggling financially.
HWFC’s research highlights that nearly 30% of young people in Hawaiʻi may not have access to a living-wage job over the next decade. With Hawaiʻi’s unique cost of living, many workers who appear financially “stable” on paper are still stretched thin in reality. -
One in four American workers say they have no opportunities for advancement.
In Hawaiʻi, HWFC reports show similar gaps, further complicated by limited local training options, fragmented systems, and lack of coordinated career navigation supports. Strengthening pathways into quality jobs—especially for youth, justice-impacted individuals, and underserved communities—is essential.
Why This Matters for Hawaiʻi
Both national and local findings point to the same truth:
Job quality—not job quantity—is the key to a resilient workforce and thriving communities.
As Hawaiʻi redesigns workforce systems, invests in work-based learning, and builds culturally grounded pathways, these reports provide a roadmap—and an urgent reminder—that the future of work must be built around equity, voice, and the well-being of our people.
