Low unemployment rate has a dark side

Hawaii’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, which had been dropping in recent months, hit a new record low last month — 2.2 percent. Eight years after the Great Recession’s low point, Hawaii is among several states marking the lowest rates since federal record-keeping got underway in the mid-1970s.

Still, as even malihini know, employment in paradise is complicated by high cost-of-living issues and a large supply of low-paying jobs. Recent declines in our labor force and in the number of people employed and unemployed indicate that Hawaii residents may be leaving the state to seek better opportunities on the mainland.

Can retiring Hawaiian Air exec succeed again?

Earlier this year, Jo Ann Jenkins, the AARP’s CEO, told the Star-Advertiser’s editorial board: “We almost need to do away with the word ‘retire,’” noting that many members of the baby-boom generation are trying out so-called “second-act” employment. Although Hawaiian Airlines CEO Mark Dunkerley, 54, has announced plans for retirement come March 2018, he’s a good candidate to join the post-career career crowd.

Fifteen years ago, when Dunkerley assumed his post at the carrier, it was close to bankruptcy. Under his leadership the company’s size has doubled and it has grown flight service in Asia, Oceania and on the mainland while continuing to link our state’s islands together. Will his Act 2 bring encore success?