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COVID-19 has uneven impact on Hawaii businesses

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
                                The results showed the hotel industry to be the hardest hit in terms of job losses, with the number of employees falling by 83% from January to April.

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM

The results showed the hotel industry to be the hardest hit in terms of job losses, with the number of employees falling by 83% from January to April.

A survey of Hawaii businesses showed about 220,000 full- and part-time jobs in the state have been lost since January with some industries down more than 80% while others have cut jobs by less than 1%.

The survey of 623 businesses was conducted by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization (UHERO) and the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii and released today.

The survey was not random and did not collect data on public sector employees or any of the large medical systems.

The results showed the hotel industry to be the hardest hit in terms of job losses, with the number of employees falling by 83% from January to April. That’s a loss of 23,252 jobs from a January total of 27,924.

Arts, entertainment and recreation was the next hardest hit category with 78% of jobs lost, followed by retail at 76% and food services at 58%.

The industries with the fewest job losses were finance and insurance with 0.7% of jobs lost and utilities with 0.8%.

The report by Philip Garboden is titled “COVID-19’s Uneven Impact on Businesses and Workers,” and is available online at uhero.hawaii.edu.

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