Worker Shortages in the Construction Industry.

      Two years ago during the 2010 Legislature Act 68 was passed by overriding Governor Lingle's veto.  The Act requires 80% of workers on public works projects to be residents on construction jobs of  $50,000 or more.  This  procurement law is codified in Chapter 103B, Hawaii Revised Statutes.  Most of the concerns in this law are the responsibility of the procurement officers of each department or agency and do not come under the jurisdiction of the DLIR.  The exception to this 80% resident worker rule is if there are worker shortages in Hawaii.  The  responsibility falls on the DLIR to determine if there are worker shortages.  (See 103B-3(b)), HRS last sentence).
     The DLIR does conduct surveys of jobs in Hawaii on a regular basis.  These surveys are called Occupational Employment Surveys (OES).  The DLIR generally measures worker shortages in the Construction Industry for the purposes of Act 68, Regular Session 2010, by taking the percent of the annual average regular claims for unemployment  in the Construction Industry to the number of construction jobs in the Occupational Employment Survey.  If that percentage is less than 6.5% than a shortage of workers exists.  2007 was the last time a shortage existed.  For the current year there continues to be no general shortage of workers so the 80%  resident worker rule applies to all current construction.
      With the general rule in place there are still some specific trades and materials that require specialty contractors with experience that may not be available in the Hawaii workforce.  For those exceptions there is an ability to apply for an exemption from the 80% rule.  The exemption request should be addressed to the Director of Labor, Dwight Takamine and contain the specific information outlined in the Act 68 information sheet.