Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 4, Number 9, 1 September 1987 — Facts and Figures [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Facts and Figures

By Gordan Frazicr ( Working Hawaiians

What kinds of work do Hawaiians do? According to the 1980 U.S. Census figures, 44,720 (58 percent) of the 76,892 Hawaiians who were 16 years and older were working. Another 3,326 Hawaiians were looking for work. These 48,046 Hawaiians are what the Census Bureau calls the Hawaiian Civilian Labor Force. For various reasons there are many Hawaiians 16years and older who are not in the labor force. Some are still in school, some are retired, some are taking care of their home and family, others are unable to work because of illness or disability.

The graph titled "Occupational Groups" shows the number of Hawaiians working in various types of oeeupations. In this graph, similar types of occupations are grouped together. For example, the managerial group includes executives, administrators, managers and management specialists. The professional and technical group includes such occupations as engineers, architects, doctors, teachers and social workers.

As shown īn the Occupational Groups graph, a large proportion of Hawaiians are service workers, equipment operators and office workers. Nearly a fourth of working Hawaiians are in service occupations such as cooks, waiters, polieemen, firemen, nurse's aides and bus drivers. Almost 20 percent of working Hawaiians are employed as operators, doing jobs such as maehine operator, assembler or inspector, and 17 percent are clerical and office workers. The graph titled "Occupations" shows the number of Hawaiians in selected occupations. This graph shows just a sampling of jobs held by Hawaiians; not all oeeupations are included in this graph.

Over the years, there has been a change in the importance and numbers of people in various oeeupahonal groups; this is true, not just for Hawaiians but for the country in general. Before World War II, many workers were farmers or laborers; today, relatively few people are in these categories. In Hawaii, a large number of people work in technical, office and service oeeupations. As we ean see from the graphs, the employment of Hawaiians tends to be more in the areas of service, equipment operators and office jobs.