Exports Support Jobs for Hawaii's Workers

Export-supported jobs linked to manufacturing account for an estimated 1.2 percent of Hawaii's total private-sector employment. Approximately 5.3 percent of all manufacturing workers in Hawaii depend on exports for their jobs. (2008 data are the latest available.)

Exports Sustain Hundreds of Hawaii Businesses

A total of 666 companies exported from Hawaii locations in 2007. Eighty-seven percent of these companies (582), or more than four-fifths, were small and medium-sized enterprises, with fewer than 500 employees.
Small and medium-sized firms generated almost two-fifths (38 percent) of Hawaii's total exports of merchandise in 2007. This is the ninth highest figure among the states, and is well above the national SME share of total exports of 30 percent.

Foreign Investment Creates Jobs in Hawaii

In 2007, foreign-controlled companies employed 30,800 workers in Hawaii. Major sources of Hawaii's foreign investment in 2007 were Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland.
Five percent, or 1,600 workers, were in the manufacturing sector in 2007.
Foreign-controlled companies accounted for 10.3 percent of total manufacturing employment in Hawaii in 2007.
Foreign investment in Hawaii was responsible for 5.9 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2007.

Hawaii Depends on World Markets

Hawaii's export shipments of merchandise in 2009 totaled $563 million.
The state's largest export market was Japan ($81 million), followed by Singapore ($79 million), South Korea ($67 million), and the Netherlands ($66 million).

The state's leading manufactured export category in 2009 was transportation equipment, which accounted for 37 percent, or $208 million, of Hawaii's total merchandise exports. Other top manufactured exports were petroleum and coal products ($81 million), computers and electronic products ($34 million) and processed foods ($32 million).

Hawaii's Metropolitan Exports

For the first-half of 2009, the metropolitan area of Honolulu exported $165 million in merchandise, 83 percent of Hawaii's total merchandise exports.

Source: International Trade Administration