Although development of a tourism industry creates new employment opportunities, critics of the industry contend that tourism provides primarily low-paying,low-skilled jobs which are demeaning. Using Hawaii as a case example, this paper analyzes the quality of employment in the tourism industry.Direct employment in Hawaii's tourism industry encompasses approximately 126900 jobs and accounts for 24% of total civilian employment in Hawaii.With such a high dependency on tourism for job,the quality of tourism employment is an important issue.
This paper investigates four commonly held be-fiefs regarding tourism employment. They are: (1)generates primarily low-skilled jots; (2)generates low-paying jobs; (3) tourism jobs offer high levels of job satisfaction; and (4)offers limited opportunities for advancement for local residents.Instead of looking at tourism employment in isolation. Comparisons with other industries in Hawaii arc made to provide a balanced picture of the situation..
The analysis focuses on three sectors of the tourism industry. i.e. air transpxortation. hotels/lodging places and cating/drinking places. these three sectots account for the majority, 67%. of total sales generated by tourist expenditure in Hawaii.' Several databases including a recent survey of tourism establishments and employees are used to each aspect of the quality of tourism employment.To minimize possible confusion over the dalahases used in each analysis, they are described in the respective sections of the paper rather than here.
Skill levels of tourism jobs
The skill levels of tourism jobs are assessed by analyzing the occupational staffing patterns of industries in Hawaii. Data on occupational staffing patterns arc collected periodically by the State of Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR). Every three years. the agency conducts an Occupational Employment Statistics (OES).Survey in cooperation with the US Bureau of Statistics. The survey covers non-agricultural industries which are contacted on a staggered basis. i.e. the first year covers manufacturing and hospitals: the second year covers companies in construction, finance. insurance, real estate and services; and the third year surveys employers in the wholesale and retail trades, regulated industries education and government. The most recent data ailable from the OES survey are for 1987 and 1988.
Prior to analyzing the occupational staffing patterns for tourism sectors. it is useful to look first at the overall distribution of employment and occupations in Ilawaii. One can easily see that Hawaii's economy is essentially service-based through the distribution of employment in non-agricultural industries. According to the DLIR Occupational Emplayment Survey less than 10% of non-agricultural employment is generated by the construction and manufacturing industries. Service industries and wholesale and retail trades accounted for over half.55.4%, of the employees in 1988; and the government sector accounted for almost 20%. These three sectors together account for nearly 75% of nonagricultural employment.
Although total employment was projected to increase b廣告een 1988 and 1993.the distribution of employment by industry was projected to remain about the same over this five-year period. Similarly,the distribution of employment by occupation was projected to remain roughly the same for the 1988-93 period. Thus, using the occupational data for 1997 and 1999 should still provide a relatively accurate picture of the current situation in regard to occupational staffing patterns for industries in Hawaii.
It should be noted that the occupational categories listed are arbitrary in that they do not necessarily reflect skill levels, educational levels or quality of employment. Airline pilots, for example, are categorized as machine operatives under the production.,operation and maintenance category. Within the service category, there are supervisory[收起]
