Census

April 23, 2015. DBEDT released its “Real Estate and Rental and Leasing Sector in Hawaii” report today. It contains sector information on Hawaii’s business establishments and their activities based on the 2012 Economic Census data.

Highlights of the report are shown below.

• Based on the 2012 Economic Census, there were 1,919 employer establishments in Hawaii operating in the Real Estate and Rental and Leasing sector. The 1,919 establishments together hired 11,369 paid employees and generated revenue of $3.4 billion in 2012.

• Within the Real Estate and Rental and Leasing sector, the Real Estate subsector dominated in the number of establishments and employees, with 1,553 establishments and 7,314 employees comprising 81% of all establishments and 64% of the employees in the overall sector. The next largest subsector was Rental and Leasing Services with about 19% of the establishments and about one-third of the employees in this sector.

• The average size of establishments in the Real Estate subsector, measured by the number of employees per establishment, was the same for both Hawaii and the U.S. at 4.7. Reflecting the high housing value in the state, however, average revenue per establishment was 41% higher in Hawaii than the national average for the subsector. Payroll per employee was also higher than the national average, but only by 5%.

• In contrast, Hawaii businesses in the Rental and Leasing subsector operated on a scale much larger than the national average. The average number of employees per establishment in Hawaii’s Rental and Leasing subsector was about 30% larger than its national counterpart, 11.2 versus 8.6 respectively. Although revenue per establishment exceeded the national average by 16%, the average payroll per employee in the Rental and Leasing subsector was 17% lower than the national average in this subsector.

• Since the 2008 recession began with the bursting of housing bubble in the U.S., its impacts seemed to be felt more in the Real Estate and Rental and Leasing sector. The number of establishment, total employment, payroll, and revenue in the sector all fell in Hawaii between 2007 and 2012. Among the four indicators, employment and payroll had a greater impact of the recession. For the sector overall, total number of employees and payroll decreased by 32% and 26% respectively between 2007 and 2012 while the number of establishments decreased 8% for the same period. Total revenue of the sector in 2012 was 14% less than the sector had achieved in 2007.

• Business performances varied by county. For the Real Estate subsector, the average number of employees per establishment for the four counties were fairly close ranging from a high of 5.0 for Honolulu County to a low of 3.5 for Hawaii County. However revenue per establishment in Honolulu County was 121% ~ 263% higher, and its payroll per employee was 38% ~ 49% higher than the neighbor island averages.

• As the Economic Census data only pertains to businesses with at least one paid employee, nonemployer businesses were examined using the Census Bureau’s Nonemployer Survey in order to get a complete picture of the sector. In 2012, there were 11,106 nonemployer businesses in Hawaii in the Real Estate and Rental and Leasing sector, which was about 6 times as many as the total number of employer businesses in the sector. Despite of its overwhelming number of businesses, revenue generation of nonemployer businesses in the sector was not significant. Combining the Economic Census employer data with the annual nonemployer data, nonemployer businesses made up 85% of the combined number of establishments, but mere 22% of the combined revenue in 2012.