Surveyed Business Executives Talk about Jobs, Wages, Profits and Prices

Boss Performance Index

The Performance Index is based on companies’ profits and staffing now compared with a year ago:

• 28% of the business leaders surveyed said their companies’ profits before taxes are up from a year ago while 40% say they have declined.
• 16% of the business leaders say they have more employees now and 31% report fewer employees

Note: Started at 100 in 1998

The same performance measures look radically different inside and outside the tourism industry.

*dk/da: Didn’t know or didn’t answer

Hiring During The Pandemic

Business leaders were asked if they find it more difficult to hire people now than before the pandemic.

Did Salary Wages Go Up?

Each respondent was asked if their place of employment has increased overall employee wages this year more so than in past years.

Note: Percentages don’t always add to 100 due to rounding.

The 192 businesses that increased employee wages at a higher rate were asked to explain the reasoning behind this decision. They could choose more than one response.

How Much Did You Pay? How Much Did You Charge?

Business leaders were asked if their vendors have raised or lowered prices more this year than in most previous years.

• 61% of companies in the visitor industry experienced large price increases from vendors, compared with 49% for all other companies.
• 62% of Neighbor Island companies experienced large price increases, compared with 46% of companies on O‘ahu.

Next, businesses were asked if they have raised prices they charge for goods and services more this year than in past years.

• 25% of businesses based on the Neighbor Islands raised their prices quite a bit, compared with 15% of those on O‘ahu.

Visitor Spending

Business leaders in the tourism industry were asked to predict visitor spending at their businesses over the next year or two. We compared those predictions with similar predictions in two previous BOSS Surveys.