Economic Development of Hawaii :: Economics Business Essays

Economic Development of Hawaii Hawaii, with an area of 28,313 sq. km (10,932 sq. mi.), is the 43rd largest state in the U.S. 6.9% of the land is owned by thefederal government. It consists mainly of the Hawaiian Islands, eightmain islands and 124 islets, reefs, and shoals. The major islands inorder of size are Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Nihau,and Kahoolawe. Population growth has increased by 80,000 persons overthe past five years. Demographics steer a large number of Hispanicorigin Asian Hispanics are the most populated with white Hispanicand Asian non-Hispanic following. Hawaiis economy has been longhenpecked by plantation cultivation and military spending. Asagriculture has declined in importance, the economy has diversified toencompass a large tourist business and a growing manufacturingindustry. Hawaiis economy has changed drastically since statehood. In 1958, defense, sugar, and pineapple were the primary economicactivities, accounting f or 40% of Gross State Product (GSP). Incontrast, visitor-related expenditures stood at salutary over 4% ofHawaiis GSP prior to statehood. Today the positions are reversedsugar and pineapple constitute about 1% of GSP, defense accounts forjust under 11%, while visitor-related spending comes close to 24% ofHawaiis GSP. The movement toward a service- and apportion-based economy becomes even more apparent when considering the distribution of Hawaiis jobsacross sectors. The share of the economys jobs accounted for bymanufacturing and agriculture have declined steadily since 1959 andeach currently makes up less than 4% of total jobs in the economy. Atthe same time, the shares of jobs in wholesale and retail trade and inservices have risen, standing at about 23% and 28%, respectively.Since 1991, Hawaiis economy has suffered from rising rates ofunemployment. This stands in marked contrast to the intent 1980 to1993, when the state enjoyed very low unemployment rates relative to the nation as a whole. But by 1994 the recession had raised Hawaiisunemployment rate to the national average (6.1%) for the first time in 15years. In 1995, the states unemployment rate improved slightly in thefirst eleven months of the year to 5.4 percent, a 0.6 percentage signdecline from the first eleven months of 1994. Despite the lowerunemployment rate, the total number of wage and salary jobs declined by0.6 percent during the first eleven months of 1995. This was due in part