Recovery will take hold across Hawai’i’s four counties during 2010. Visitor numbers have stabilized and will gradually improve as growth strengthens in major tourism markets. After record-setting job losses, limited net hiring will begin this year, building as we move into 2011 and 2012. Private construction is bottoming out, and the sector will begin to see more benefit from Federal and State spending programs. While growth is resuming, the pace of recovery will be slow, and it will take a number of years to return to relative economic health. The challenge is greatest on the Neighbor Islands, which have suffered a much deeper downturn than O’ahu over the past two years.
