Hawaii's Creative Industries

This group is composed of several areas of the arts including selected performing arts, creative arts (visual and literary), and supporting industries such as promoters, agents, managers and art dealers. The group does not include musicians, who are included with the music industry group and museums, which are included in cultural activities group.

One of the leading components of Hawaii’s creative sector is engineering and scientific research and development, with about 5,767 jobs. This group overlaps the technology and the creative sectors. It is included in the creative sector because innovation and creativity are major drivers in the application of engineering and in transforming emerging technologies into commercial products and services. As in technology, social science research is also an activity in creative R&D.

The computer and digital media industry group also includes many of the same activities as in the computer services group in the technology sector. However, in addition to the core computer technology services, the creative sector places heavy emphasis on the rapidly developing and evolving marriage of digital technology with traditional entertainment, cultural and artistic content. This marriage is variously referred to as digital media, creative media and sometimes new media.

Marketing, photography and related activities in Hawaii play an important role in bringing Hawaii’s goods and services to the attention of national and international markets. Marketing, advertising, public relations and media specialists account for most of this sector’s workforce of about 10,693. This represented about a 0.5% annual increase from 2004 and compares to a 1.5% annual increase in the national workforce of this industry group. Jobs in some areas such as display advertising and commercial photography grew faster than their national counterparts and faster than Hawaii’s economy as a whole. However, losses of jobs in advertising, (especially direct mail) marketing research reduced the overall growth rate.

Business consulting was a thriving activity over the 2004 to 2014 period with 5,013 jobs in 2014, up 5.3% annually from 2004. This was more than four times the growth rate of Hawaii’s overall job count and exceeded the growth rate for business consulting nationally.

As a whole, publishing and information showed a 3.3% annual decline in jobs from 2004 to 2014, which was worse than the national level. This industry group is dominated by newspaper publishing, which accounted for almost one-half of the industry group’s jobs in 2014. Newspaper publishing showed a 6.9% annual decline in jobs over the period, and this was below the 5.3% annual decline nationally. The rise of the internet as a source of information is certainly a major factor in the decline of traditional publishing. In Hawaii, internet publishing and broadcasting increased jobs by 10.2% annually from 2004 to 2014, with 264 employees in 2014.

The cultural activities industry group accounted for 3,455 jobs in 2014 and included museums, historical sites, zoos, botanical gardens and grant making foundations. As a group, cultural activities registered a 8.6% annual increase in jobs over the 2004 to 2014 period, much better than the state’s economy as a whole and the same set of activities nationally. As a result the cultural industry group gained some competitive national industry share. The annual earnings average for the cultural activities group was $40,735 in 2014. This ranged from $25,075 for museums to $86,815 for grant making establishments.

Architecture is one of the more visible examples of the creative sector. In particular, a unique style of Hawaiian architecture has developed over the last several decades, weaving themes from old and new Hawaii into designs suited for the state’s climate and life style. More recently, architecture has become a leading source of creativity in addressing the need to conserve energy and provide for alternative energy sources in Hawaii’s residential and commercial structures.

Design services employed about 1,979 people in 2014. About 53% of these jobs were among graphic design firms, while another 27% were in interior design. Overall, jobs grew by 1.6% annually in the design industry group. Interior design jobs grew 2.6% and graphic design jobs grew 2.3% annually.

Like publishing, broadcasting has been impacted by the rise of the internet as an information and entertainment alternative. Radio and TV broadcasting shrank by 0.4% annually to about 1,323 jobs over the 2004 to 2014 period. Nationally, the industry group did only marginally better, managing a 0.3% annual decline in jobs. Television broadcasting lost 0.7% of its workforce annually over the period to just 641 jobs in 2014. Radio stations gained 1.2% annually over the period with about 581 jobs in 2014. Radio networks, the only other activity in the industry group lost 5.8% per year. The annual earnings average for broadcasting was about $58,455 in 2014. This ranged from $86,237 for radio networks, to $46,103 for radio stations.

Filmmakers from Hollywood and around the world are using Hawai`i as a location for film, television, commercial, and digital media production. Film and television production in Hawaii has been an important contributor to both jobs and income in the state, as well as to the visitor industry through the global exposure these productions have enjoyed.

Hawaii has always had a unique music arts culture based on Hawaiian heritage, but it has expanded to embrace trends in music worldwide. The range of talented musicians in Hawaii has been an important attraction for visitors as well as a staple of the island’s culture. Until the digital age, the problem of taking Hawaii’s unique music to the world at large had been the difficulties of breaking into a national recording industry that was mainstream-oriented and the high investment cost of producing and distributing recorded music without the backing of major music labels.

The dynamics changed with the digital age, which has made production of high quality recording affordable to individual artists and new distribution systems that allow artists to promote and sell their music through the internet and music downloading services.

Arts education — music, theater, dance, visual and literary art — is pervasive in public and private elementary and secondary schools, and in institutions of higher education. Within the public sector the size and trends in arts are difficult to discern due to a lack of information. However, in the private sector there are more than 40 small establishments and numerous self-employed educators in the state specializing in various forms of arts education. The total number of persons engaged in this small industry was nearly 704 in 2014, up about 3.6% annually from 2004. These activities grew about the same at the national level for the period. Average annual earnings amounted to only $13,707 for Hawaii in 2014 and $13,874 at the national level. This suggests that part time work is the norm in the industry.