Roughly 4 in 10 Hawaii private-sector employees were doing their jobs outside the traditional workplace in 2021, according to a state report assessing remote work amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism estimates that 198,224 Hawaii private-sector payroll employees were working remotely as of Aug. 31, representing 42.4% of all workers outside of government or the self-employed.

DBEDT’s estimate, based on two surveys the agency commissioned, is about twice as high as the 21.8% national average, said DBEDT chief economist Eugene Tian.

Tian said a main reason why the percentage of Hawaii’s remote workers was so much higher than the national average is because COVID-19 mitigation restrictions issued by Gov. David Ige and county mayors were more stern compared with many or most other states and counties.

According to the survey, 59.6% of all Hawaii employees polled have worked remotely at some point between the start of the pandemic in March 2020 and the survey period from September 2021 to January.

This group was about evenly split between those who worked remotely all the time and those who did so part of the time.

A separate survey of private employers found that 23.4% of firms considered remote work a necessity due to the pandemic.

Also among the employer group, 65.7% said they intend to continue with remote work arrangements post-pandemic.

Mike McCartney, DBEDT director, said in a statement that the 109-page report provides insights into Hawaii’s shifting workplace landscape and how the state, along with employers and employees, can adapt given opportunities and challenges tied to remote working.

“We hope that the results from this study will help to facilitate constructive dialogue between Hawaii’s businesses and their employees to determine their future working arrangements,” he said.

For example, businesses that made investments in their digital infrastructure may be able to reap benefits — such as offering remote work as a recruiting incentive and serving new markets — beyond the pandemic, according to McCartney.

“While remote work is not, in and of itself, an industry that can be developed to advance the economic prosperity of the state and its people, studying it has informed DBEDT’s strategy moving forward to develop a holistic, and globally relevant and competitive economy,” he said.

The surveys did not ask how many employees were working remotely before the pandemic, though 15.3% of employers polled said they already had a remote-work program when the pandemic started.

As might be expected, certain types of jobs had more employees working remotely compared with others given the type of work required.

For instance, only 4.1% of workers in food service and 20.6% in retail worked remotely, according to the employer survey. Industries with the highest levels of remote workers were “professional, scientific and technical services” at 75.7%, followed by finance and insurance at 75.5% and then information at 62.8%.

Among occupation categories from the employee survey, the highest levels of remote work at any time during the pandemic occurred in the legal profession at 86.2%, followed by a computer and math category at 84.5% and then educational instruction/ library workers at 83.1%.

Reductions in remote work between some point earlier in the pandemic and the time of the survey also were reported.

The biggest reduction was in the educational instruction/library worker category, which includes public school teachers, where the share of remote work fell to 49.9% from 83.1%. The legal profession had the next-biggest decrease, to 65.9% from 86.2%.

The study also broke down data on remote work by government workers.

Some 80.4% of state workers did their job remotely at some point since the start of the pandemic. This figure decreased to 48% at the time of the survey.

For counties, 54.1% of employees did work remotely at some point during the pandemic but dropped to 34.6% at the time of the survey.

The same figures for federal civilian workers were 61.8% and 44.2%, respectively.

Satisfaction with remote work among employees was 90.9%, with respondents citing benefits including schedule flexibility, no commute and the freedom to live anywhere.

DBEDT reported that 20,636 of the estimated 198,224 Hawaii private- sector payroll employees working remotely as of Aug. 31 did so from outside the state.

The survey also described concerns from remote workers that included being at a disadvantage for promotion or advancement and missing out on social and networking benefits.

Another drawback was unstable home internet service, cited by 27.7% of remote workers. Additionally, 65.3% expressed a desire for improved broadband infrastructure.

Employers reported less satisfaction with remote work, with 30.5% of such respondents characterizing the experience as positive and 49.8% as neutral. Employers recognized that benefits include employee satisfaction, reduced operating costs and an advantage to recruit and retain workers.

On the other hand, employer concerns about remote work included challenges with communication, collaboration, supervision, security and maintaining company culture.

The report also said that 51.2% of employers said they invested in equipment or services for their employees to work remotely, and 43.2% expressed a desire for broadband infrastructure improvements.

Honolulu-based Anthology Research conducted the survey for DBEDT and received 1,661 responses from randomly selected Hawaii-based private employers and 5,451 responses from randomly selected private payroll employees, self-employed entrepreneurs, state and county government employees, and federal civilian employees.

The report is available at dbedt.hawaii.gov/blog/22-16.

REMOTE WORKFORCE

Hawaii occupations with highest share of remote workers during the pandemic:

Legal 86.2%

Computer/math 84.5%

Educational instruction/library 83.1%

Life, physical, social science 80.5%

Community/social service 79.8%

Source: Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism