Continued Growth in Science and Tech Jobs in 2008
Michael P. Hamnett and Robert L. Shore

Employment in science and technology industries has continued to grow despite the sharp economic down turn, which began in 2007.  Data compiled by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism shows that science and technology employment in 2008 increased by 2.8% compared to a decrease of 0.8% in employment for the rest of the economy.

The recent analysis was a follow up from a study published by the Hawaii Science & Technology Institute (HiSciTech) in 2008, which showed that science and technology industries contributed about $3 billion to the state’s economy in 2007 and grew measurably faster than the rest of the economy.  Table 1 summarizes updated jobs and earnings for the technology sector to 2008.

TABLE 1

The update study, based on the same definitions and data source used in the 2008 HiSciTech report, found that private employment in science and technology totaled nearly 24,300 in 2008, a 14.6% increase from 2002.  This compared with a tourism-driven jobs growth of 14.2% for the state’s economy as a whole for the same period.  Average annual earnings in the tech sector were over $65,400 in 2008, about 49% higher than the state civilian average of $43,900.

Moreover, the update found that technology jobs posted healthy growth of 2.8% from 2007 to 2008, while civilian employment in Hawaii’s economy declined by 0.8%.  This was beyond expectations. The 2008 Hawaii Science & Technology Institute report had anticipated that growth in science and technology employment would slow to 2.5% per annum during the period 2008 to 2013, compared to a growth of 1.6% for the rest of the economy for the same period.  Of course, no one anticipated the kind of severe economic slowdown that Hawaii has experienced since about the middle of 2007.  Therefore the underlying strength of the technology sector in the face of the overall economic decline has been impressive.

Looking at the details of the employment data in Table 1, it is clear that the 2008 strength came from research and development activity, technical consulting services, computer services and even from the small manufacturing and distribution activities in technology. Biotechnology, which includes elements of R&D and some of the other technology activities, also did well in 2008.

Over the entire 2002 to 2008 period, R&D, biotech and medical testing have been the strongest sources of growth in the sector.  However, technical consulting, computer services and engineering contributed to growth at rates faster than the economy at large.

The producing industries in Table 1, especially research and development, engineering, computer services, and biotechnology, are the primary producers of services for the commercial market sectors such as astronomy, dual use technology and digital media.

It is expected that sufficiently reliable data should be available by early next year to permit assessment of the performance in the technology sector during 2009.




Michael P. Hamnett is the Executive Director of the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii. Dr. Hamnett has over 35 years of policy research and planning experience in Hawaii and the Pacific Islands region.  He is currently the Chief Operating Officer of RCUH and a Researcher in the Social Science Research Institute at UH.


Robert L. Shore is Economics Research Program Manager, State of Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Bob Shore has been an economist for the State of Hawaii for 30 years.  He is currently Branch Chief of the Economic Information Staff of DBEDT’s Research and Economic Analysis Division.