{"id":3922,"date":"2020-09-18T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-19T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=3922"},"modified":"2020-09-19T02:50:55","modified_gmt":"2020-09-19T12:50:55","slug":"more-delays-more-jobs-losses-but-moves-toward-jobs-diversification-is-encouraging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2020\/09\/18\/more-delays-more-jobs-losses-but-moves-toward-jobs-diversification-is-encouraging\/","title":{"rendered":"More Delays, More Jobs Losses, But Moves Toward Jobs Diversification Is Encouraging"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hawaii\u2019s tourism took a turn for the worst as 25 hospitality companies including hotels recently announced they will lay off hundreds of workers within the next 30 days. This latest round of job losses will take effect Nov. 13.

Hotels also warned that if the situation doesn\u2019t improve by Jan. 8, they would need to let go even more workers. Travel agencies already have reported mass cancellations for September, October and November.

But the tourism industry most likely acted on the latest mass layoffs because of the repeated push backs of reopening tourism and lifting the 14 days quarantine for visitors. The State planned to open tourism on Aug. 1st, then Sept. 1st, but now plans to open in Oct. 1st. Uncertainty has always been corporations\u2019 Achilles heel. And given the increase spread of COVID-19 in the state, the Oct. 1st target is looking more optimistic than likely.

Mounting frustration
<\/strong>The latest push back of tourism\u2019s reopening is not being as readily accepted by the community and businesses as earlier precautionary measures, and for valid reason.

The State\u2019s pre-travel testing program is still not where it should be. Full implementation is taking too long. On top of that, it remains unclear what benchmarks must be met in order for the state to move on reopening the economy fully. There\u2019s just too many uncertainty with little guidance from top state and county leader.

And it\u2019s not hyperbole to say that the State\u2019s economy fully. There\u2019s just too many uncertainty with little guidance from top state and county leaders.

To get a big picture of the losses this year since tourism was shit down for business in March.

Hawaii Tourism Authority reported visitors spent a hefty $17.6 billion in Hawaii last year. This year\u2019s revenues and visitors rate pale in comparison to year\u2019s past.

The Stay-at-Home orders and ripple effect of tourism\u2019s demise also has been devastating to other businesses. Twenty percent of Hawaii businesses have had no revenue since January and 2- percent reported losses of more than half of their monthly revenues, according to the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization.

Diversification
<\/strong>While tourism is on hold, Gov. Ige and state lawmakers announced $10 million\u2014of the $1.25 billion allocated to Hawaii by the Federal government to ease the burden of COVID\u2014will go to bolster jobs in agriculture, health care and technology, besides tourism.

Part of the $10 million will go to workforce retraining programs. Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz said, \u201cWhat we tried to do was to get people off unemployment and start to seed non-tourism sector jobs.\u201d Participants of the retraining program will receive $13 per hour.

Investments toward diversifying the state\u2019s economy is long overdue and ultimately the best course to take for the economy in the long term.

Hopefully building new industries and expanding non-tourism jobs will bring in higher paying jobs that could make living in Hawaii (highest cost of living in the nation) easier.

For three consecutive years the state has registered a decline in its workforce; it has also experienced a decline in population for years that could get worse in a poor economy and high cost of living. Surveys show many residents who remain are under financial stress and take on multiple jobs to make ends meet.

The $10 million to help diversify the economy is a good start but more needs to be done. There is no reason why alternative energy, given the state\u2019s natural resources, isn\u2019t a major industry for Hawaii. It could be pursued with cultural sensitivity and in collaboration with Hawaii\u2019s native community. This will take effective leadership.

In hindsight it\u2019s easy to say efforts to diversify the economy should have been a major focus arguably generations ago. Serious talks have been floating around since the early 1990s, but little action taken.

The overwhelming success of tourism in Hawaii, one of the most successful models in the world, made diversification less urgent. Tourism has been a reliable industry in many cities around the world. It was solid prior to the pandemic. Not to mention building a tourism-centered economy like in Hawaii actually makes a city more aesthetically beautiful, as compared to other cities that rely on hard industry that cause greater environmental pollution.

The Ige administration has been caught flat-footed by COVID. But so has all administrations.

Earlier in the pandemic U.S. governors sought to minimize the virus\u2019 curve and placed public safety first and foremost. As local and county economies worsened, some governors have caved into pressure to find a more balanced approach to the pandemic, considering both safety and economic needs.

As more jobs are lost, Gov. Ige will need to make even harder decisions to open the economy even while rates of COVID infections could show little improvement.

But ultimately, the public cannot just be pointing the finger at leaders, but must be better at keeping the virus from spreading. At minimum, wearing a mask is a must.

Practice responsibility and we all can get out of this rut faster.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hawaii\u2019s tourism took a turn for the worst as 25 hospitality companies including hotels recently…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?fit=1050%2C600",1050,600,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?fit=300%2C171",300,171,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?fit=640%2C366",640,366,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?fit=640%2C366",640,366,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?fit=1050%2C600",1050,600,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?fit=1050%2C600",1050,600,true],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600",1050,600,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?resize=870%2C570",870,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?resize=600%2C600",600,600,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?resize=600%2C600",600,600,true],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600",1050,600,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?resize=780%2C500",780,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C585",1024,585,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?resize=540%2C285",540,285,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?resize=375%2C250",375,250,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Editorials<\/a>","tag_info":"Editorials","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Untitled-design-2-1.jpg?fit=1050%2C600","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3923,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3922\/revisions\/3923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}