Hawaii's Business Climate

[pzarquon]

Steve Forbes famously called our islands the "People's Republic of Hawaii," citing the state's burdensome tax system, excessive regulation, and other barriers that make it one of the worst places to do business. So I was surprised to read that according to Forbes the magazine, we (Honolulu, specifically) might still suck... but not as badly as we used to.

Honolulu rises on Forbes list
Sean Hao, Honolulu Advertiser, Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Honolulu continued to move up Forbes magazine's list of Best Places for Business, thanks in part to strong job growth generated by the state's healthy economy. Honolulu's ranking at 103 on the list of 150 large metro areas, published in the magazine's May 23 issue, was an improvement from last year's 113 position. Hawai'i's booming economy during the past two years has helped improve Honolulu's ranking markedly compared with earlier years when the city would rank near the bottom.

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaii's Business Climate

Steve Forbes famously called our islands the "People's Republic of Hawaii," citing the state's burdensome tax system, excessive regulation, and other barriers that make it one of the worst places to do business. So I was surprised to read that according to Forbes the magazine, we (Honolulu, specifically) might still suck... but not as badly as we used to.

Honolulu rises on Forbes list
Sean Hao, Honolulu Advertiser, Tuesday, May 10, 2005

The only thing that worries me about stats like this is they only look at things like total jobs, they don't necessarily look at the quality of the jobs. More than likely the increases are in construction and service jobs (like WM), which usually have huge increases when the economy is good but tank when the economy is bad...

Miulang