MEDIA RELEASE

The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations has announced the release of its Employment Forecasts for the Short-Term 2014publication, which reports that state employment is forecasted to expand by 4.0 percent or 26,690 jobs from the third quarter 2012 to the third quarter 2014.

While tourism and its related industries will continue to be a major part of Hawaii’s economic revival, expansion in the construction industry at 6.4 percent annually will lead all industries during the forecast period.

All 12 of the major occupational groups are forecasted to expand through 2014. Construction and extraction occupations will lead the way with 8.5 percent growth, while the computer, engineering, and science occupations could experience the slowest pace of growth with 2.6 percent.

As tourism is able to maintain its vitality, service occupations will demonstrate significant growth because this group includes many of the accommodation and food services jobs. Overall, the service occupational group will expand by 4.2 percent, adding 7,480 new jobs over the two-year forecast period.

Other major occupational groups that will produce more than a thousand annual job openings, which includes replacement workers, include office and administrative support (3,590); sales and related support (3.750); education, legal, community service, arts and media (2,720); management, business and financial operations (2,670); transportation and material moving (1,900); healthcare practitioners and technical (1,090); installation, maintenance, and repair (1,080) and computer, engineering, and science (1,010).

The Employment Forecasts for the Short-Term Future series provides short-term industry and occupational projections for the State of Hawaii.

The data tables use actual 3rd quarter 2012 employment for the base year and forecasts employment for the 3rd quarter 2014.

The full report, including a description of methodology, is available at the Hawaii Workforce Infonet: www.hiwi.org/admin/gsipub/htmlarea/uploads/Short-term_Forecasts-2012-2014.pdf