TROUBLE HIRING IN HAWAII

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Some qualified
isle applicants
are struggling

The high-profile isle
"boom" is just a thud
for select job seekers

Six months after stepping down as chief information officer for the city of Honolulu, Courtney Harrington still can't find the right job in his field in Hawaii. So he's compromising his career to stay.

Having run a department with 137 employees and a $13 million operating budget, and along the way winning national accolades from industry peers, Harrington said he knows he would get frustrated working for one of the small shops that make up much of Hawaii's information technology universe. And although he's gotten bites from the mainland offering six-figure salaries and perks, Harrington doesn't want to leave Hawaii.

"This is my home," he said. "I'm born and raised here. I don't want to pack up my whole house and three dogs and two cars and move to something I don't know."

Harrington was among Hawaii residents who responded to the Star-Bulletin's "Help Wanted" series of stories that explored the effects of the state's record-low unemployment rate. Most respondents, like Harrington, complained they were unable to find suitable jobs despite Hawaii's nation-leading 2.7 percent unemployment rate.

Harrington said he simply won't be able to duplicate the satisfaction of his previous job if he stays. Among other accomplishments, Harrington said he led the city to reduce its reliance on many paper forms and introduced online applications for city jobs -- procedures that streamlined the bureaucracy and cut costs. He says he just can't find anything in his field here that will offer the same opportunities to innovate.

"The answer that I have come up with is there is just nothing in town," he said.

Instead, Harrington said, he plans to work administering construction of a high-tech building on Oahu.

"It's not the one thing I've done in my life that I've been happiest with," he said. "But I'm sure it will be fun, and I'll be happy with it."

Carol Kadena dropped out of the work force 17 years ago to raise a family. Now the 50-year-old former legal secretary can't get back in.

Although Kadena said she has significant clerical and administrative skills -- an ability to do real estate conveyances, title searches, stock transfers and the like -- she says she can't get a job. Her handicap: Kadena has always worked on Apple computers.

As soon as she tells potential employers this, she said, they "shut down and won't give me the time of day."

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Despite a booming job market and computer skills, Carol Kadena can't find work as a legal secretary or administrative aide.

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"A lot of them seem to have the attitude that it's totally different, and just because I have Mac, I'm incapable of using PC," she said.

Kadena said she has tried temp agencies and employment services, but to no end.

"One person bluntly told me, 'Go back to school,'" she says.

Instead, Kadena spends much of her free time at the Apple Store in Ala Moana Shopping Center.

Kadena wonders if she is being too candid by telling potential employers that her hands-on experience is limited to the Macintosh operating system, even though she's skilled in several Microsoft programs made for Mac.

"My former boss used to say, 'It's not what you say but how you say it,'" she said.

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Some readers see
'Worker's Paradise'
as isle mirage

Plenty of security jobs, just not in Hawaii

After reading your series of articles about how great Hawaii's job market is for current job seekers, I am stunned. I have had no luck finding a job since I got out of the military in January.

You would think that I have absolutely no job skills, but that is not the case. I am fluent in Chinese Mandarin. I hold a Top Secret/SCI security clearance, and have a current polygraph on record, not to mention the fact that I have experience with a number of software systems, and, of course, typing skills. I also have experience reporting for a number of newspapers throughout my life. I have even worked in the customer service industry at the front desk of the four-star Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. I have a proven track record of being a fast learner, so I could be trained to do almost any job. In addition to all of these job skills and experience, I am only a few credits from finishing my bachelor's degree. And this is only a portion of what is on my resume.

So why can't I get a job? It's not that I haven't been trying. I have applied for over 80 jobs since becoming unemployed, ranging from part-time cosmetic sales at Macy's to language analyst for the National Security Agency. Everyone told me when I got out that I would have no problem finding a job with my background. This might be true -- if I was willing to relocate to Washington, D.C. Countless employers have contacted me about intelligence-related jobs that I didn't even apply for, located in the D.C. area. However, my husband is stationed here in Hawaii.

I have already forewarned my husband that if I don't find suitable work here in Hawaii, I will return to Las Vegas. He will just have to meet up with me there when his enlistment is over. Obviously, I do not want this to be the case.

Unemployment figures are misleading

Sunday's headlines told of our "Workers' Paradise." The bulk of our working people are employed in the euphemistically titled "hospitality industry." This translates to $6 an hour. The bulk of our hospitality workers are working at two and three jobs just to survive.

What color is the sky in your paradise?

And, by the way, when the unemployment figures go down, it usually means their unemployment benefits have run out. They still haven't found a job, but they're no longer counted as unemployed.

Job seeker yet to see "employment crunch"

I have yet to feel this sort of "employment crunch," since I have not been hired by many of the jobs I have applied for, including jobs that I am very well qualified for. In the year I have been back in the islands it's been very difficult to find a job -- and being a University of Hawaii student apparently scares employers away, as I keep on being told that they are looking for employees that "have no strings attached." I personally think that it's also employers looking for "perfect employees" on paper, and not really trying to fill positions.