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Of the latest 2017 rankings, Hawaii ranks #50. Suffice it to say, 50 isn't good out of 50 states. The District of Columbia did rank worse so I guess there is that.
We seem to get a lot of nursing inquiries here so something to consider.
Low pay after cost of living adjustments and few job openings per capita didn't help.
it's probably partially due to the "nursing shortage" and promise of 100k+ jobs during the mid 2000s. Everyone piled into nursing, which lead to a huge glut in people with nursing degreees. Hence the rank of 50 for "opportunity"
The article weighs things like "commute time" (look at Oahu where most of the nurses are) "educational opportunity based on nursing schools" (Hawaii's education system sucks), "nurses per 1000 residents" (it's well known we don't have enough). So Hawaii ranked dead last in the states based on carefully cooked data. We barely edged out New York for worst state.
I'm getting the impression nobody really read the methodology -
70% of the score was based around "Opportunity and Competition" with the highest weight in that category given towards average salary adjusted for cost of living. At the end of the day - if the pay sucks, you aren't going to rank very high in any scorecard. In terms of pay adjusted for cost of living, Hawaii ranks dead last.
30% of the score was "work environment" - and yes, commute time was a factor, making up 2.14% of the overall score. In this overall category, Hawaii ranked 39th. So, not only your pay sucks, your work environment isn't much better.
Another thing that jumps out, Hawaii ranks 48th in fewest job openings per capita.
"In terms of pay adjusted for cost of living, Hawaii ranks dead last."
I think that can be said for just about any job on Oahu.
"Hawaii ranks 48th in fewest job openings per capita"
Another Oahu-concentric statistic (Honolulu). The outer islands have to transport and house nurses from other states on temporary contracts.
I do appreciate the post and I'm sure there is merit to the article. I try to remind people that Honolulu generates the statistics for the state, even though geographically speaking it makes up the tiniest portion of it.
Well, the nurses can always go to Minnesota instead, that ranked higher for "work environment'.
It seemed like a very superficial article.
Actually, nurses do pretty well in Minnesota. One thing that Minnesota has going for it is the health care is considered to be very good. There's a lot of money to be made in IT in Minnesota too, often times more than in California. There's probably thousands of "help wanted' signs within about 10 miles of where I live. Many of those "help wanted" signs are really 'in your face' when entering and exiting the stores! Almost every business in the Twin Cities are seems to need workers. The wages at many of those stores are businesses might only be about $11 to $17. Although, I can't afford to work that cheap. But if you have high level job skills, you can make many times that hourly wage. The cost of living in Minnesota isn't as high as other places. The food prices are unusually low for some reason, even though very little food is grown in Minnesota compared to other places. But the taxes are considered pretty high. Minnesota is considered towards the bottom of the barrel for retiring, especially if you have assets and wealth to be taxed, although if need good health care, it's the place to be, if you can stand the long cold and snowy winters and short summers.
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