Hawaii’s unemployment rate has nearly doubled in the past year, and the industry that’s seeing the biggest number of losses is construction.
Union officials say right now on Oahu there are 3-thousand members without work and the State Labor Department says in the past year 6-thousand construction jobs have been lost across the state.
Both construction and union officials say building Honolulu’s rail transit system will bring money and much needed jobs to Honolulu.
With a state multi-year shortfall of 2-billion dollars and a city deficit of 50-million dollars city officials say there is one bright spot in the not so distant future.
“The only real hope that we have on the horizon in my mind is rail,” City Managing Director Kirk Caldwell said.
Dozens of Waipahu residents gathered Wednesday night at the second of three community rail station workshops to discuss transit and give input.
“If it’s going to bring jobs to Hawaii its going to keep the money in Hawaii,” Waipahu resident Ty Cullen said.
Some of the residents expressed concern over whether the rail is actually going to be built considering the state of the economy but city officials say...
“We have collected about 400-million through the surcharge, the federal government, Dan Inouye said there’s somewhere between 1-billion and 1.5 billion that will be forth coming,” Caldwell said.
“Without a doubt its the project that couldn't come quicker,” Pacific Resource Partnership Kyle Chock said.
With half of all construction workers on Oahu sitting on the bench, union officials say this is the biggest project on Oahu’s books and jobs will have a ripple effect on the economy and the job market.
“At its maximum build out we could have as many as 6-thousand carpenters working and close to 11-thousand construction jobs direct and indirect as the result of one project,” Chock said.
And people are already being hired to work on the project.
“Its going to help not just construction workers, but architects, engineers, design consultants, its going to help small businesses that are situated along the route,” Chock said.
“This in an opportunity it truly is the only hope to try and turn around our economy a little earlier,” Caldwell said.
The rail transit EIS is expected to be completed late this summer. Contracts for the first guideway segment will be awarded in the fall and construction is slated to begin in December of this year, meaning jobs for thousands.
