Foreign employment drops 10% in isles
Some of the decrease could come from hotels changing ownership
Hawaii had the fourth-biggest percent decrease in domestic workers on foreign company payrolls between 2003 and 2004, according to a study to be released today by the Washington, D.C.-based Organization for International Investment.
Isle experts don't see the report as cause for alarm. Some of the decrease could be attributed to hotel properties that changed hands from Japanese owners to mainland U.S. or local investors.
Nationally, some 5.12 million U.S. workers are on foreign payrolls, a 9.6 percent drop from the all-time high of 5.66 million workers in 2000, and the fourth consecutive annual decline, said the group, which culled its data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Hawaii experienced a 10.2 percent drop between 2003 and 2004 -- from 35,200 workers on foreign payrolls to 31,600. Only West Virginia, North Dakota and South Dakota had larger decreases.
California retained its ranking as the state with the most jobs supported by foreign companies -- 547,000 in 2004, although that figure was a 2 percent drop from 2003.
The decline nationally was attributed to causes including increased productivity in manufacturing, weak job growth following a 2001 recession, and new restrictions imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting rules.
Hawaii is a small enough market that the drop could have been caused by just one employer or a few employers, said Leroy Laney, professor of economics and finance at Hawaii Pacific University.
"Let's say a hotel is sold by a Japanese entity to a U.S. entity, that would be enough to do it," he said.
Pearl Imada Iboshi, economist for the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, said the number of employees on foreign payrolls reached a peak in the early 1990s, and has steadily declined since.
But Iboshi said the numbers are not alarming for Hawaii.
"From Hawaii's perspective, investment from anywhere is good," she said. "Money from the U.S. mainland is outside money coming in, even though it wouldn't be counted here as a foreign company."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.