Construction Industry Gets Spark From Kaua`i

The Lt. Governor cited figures from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism that show Kaua`i is providing the construction industry with its strongest growth statewide in the first five months of 2008.

From January to May, the construction industry on Kaua`i employed an estimated 2,100 people, representing 6.7 percent of the island’s total labor force. That figure is up from 1,800 people in the first five months of 2007, adding 300 more construction jobs on Kaua‘i.

The Lt. Governor attributed the increase to a spike in residential building permits, whose dollar value in the five-month period between January and May rose to $112 million, from $89 million in the same period a year earlier.

“The total value of these permits has increased 26 percent in the first five months of this year,” Lt. Governor Aiona told contractors assembled for the conference at the Hilton Kaua`i Beach Resort. “These are impressive numbers for our economy. And I want you to know that our Administration shares your goal of sustaining economic prosperity for the Garden Isle. But in order to assure these opportunities are within the reach of contractors and other businesses in the construction industry, we must have an economy that continues to grow and expand.”

Statewide, the construction industry’s economic impact is pegged at $3.4 billion. It is also the fifth largest private industry, behind real estate, hotel, retail and hospital, employing an estimated 40,000 people, or 6.3 percent of Hawai`i’s total workforce.