Hawaii
Source: IPEDS Completions, 3-yr avg AY 2022–25 (NCES; 2024–25 provisional), bachelor’s degrees, CIP 14 + 11; China 33.2%: PRC Ministry of Education, 2022 bachelor’s graduates by discipline (NSF NCSES S&E Indicators Fig. HED-30: 32.8%, 2020); Population: Census NST-EST2025.
Hawaii at China’s rate would graduate 1,905 engineers a year. It graduates 420.
Hawaii produces 420 engineering and computer science bachelor's degrees a year out of 5,737 total, among the weakest engineering producers in the country, from 5 institutions. At China's rate it would produce 1,905. Output is growing (+9.1% over three years). Gap Score: 22% of the China benchmark. Its own economy is projected to open 1,320 engineering, computing and technician jobs a year through 2034; in-state degrees, associate and bachelor's together, cover 42% of them.
The gap against China’s benchmark
Three-year trend: eng+CS share of degrees
Hawaii is missing 1,484 engineers a year at China's rate, roughly 4x the annual output of University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Where Hawaii’s engineers are made.
5 institutions produce engineering or computer science bachelor’s degrees in Hawaii. The top 5 account for 100% of output.
Every producing institution. Circle area = eng+CS bachelor’s degrees per year
Top producers
| # | Institution | Eng+CS / yr | % of its degrees |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Hawaii at Manoa | 344 | 10.8% |
| 2 | Brigham Young University-Hawaii | 37 | 6.6% |
| 3 | Hawaii Pacific University | 29 | 5.9% |
| 4 | University of Hawaii at Hilo | 9 | 1.6% |
| 5 | University of Phoenix-Hawaii | 0 | 4.2% |
Jobs vs. degrees
Hawaii's own labor-market projection, 2024–2034, for engineers, computer occupations and engineering technicians, against the degrees the state produces at every level.
Openings against output
Where the openings are
| Occupation | Openings / yr |
|---|---|
| Computer Occupations, All Other | 160 |
| Computer User Support Specialists | 140 |
| Civil Engineers | 130 |
| Computer Systems Analysts | 120 |
| Software Developers | 120 |
| Network and Computer Systems Administrators | 90 |
Coverage: degrees ÷ openings
Openings are the state labor agency’s own 10-year projection: new jobs plus replacing workers who retire or leave the field (BLS method). Not every opening goes to a new graduate, so this is a coverage measure; it does not count vacant positions. Occupations: engineers (SOC 17-2), computer occupations (SOC 15-12) and engineering technicians (SOC 17-3, the associate-degree tier), the jobs CIP 14 + 11 degrees feed; degrees here include associate degrees to match. Source: Hawaii labor-market projections via Projections Central (U.S. Dept. of Labor).
Hawaii is building faster than it graduates
Hawaii's engineering demand is almost entirely federal and utility: a multi-billion-dollar Navy shipyard rebuild, Air Force space-surveillance contracts on Maui, and a grid being replaced island by island. The state produces 420 engineering and CS bachelor's a year and cannot fill roughly 350 engineering jobs annually.
The drain.
Hawaii is #46 of 51 in engineering and CS share of degrees, and the graduates it does produce are the ones most likely to leave. The state's own recruiting effort now targets engineers on the mainland.
Sources: University of Hawaii and Chamber of Commerce Hawaii Kamaaina Come Home program; Hawaii DBEDT brain drain study via Honolulu Civil Beat; UHERO
Who’s covering it.
Reporters already cover this, but no one has combined it into a single number the way the Index does.
The fix, in Hawaii.
Train more engineers at UH Manoa
Kamaaina Come Home tries to re-import engineers who already left, at a state where UH Manoa produces 344 of Hawaii's 420 engineering and CS bachelor's a year. A Digital ROTC service-for-tuition track at UH Manoa's College of Engineering, sized against the roughly 350 jobs going unfilled annually, would raise in-state production directly.
Use the community colleges
Associate degrees are already 24% of Hawaii's engineering and CS output, and Honolulu Community College runs the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard apprentice pipeline. Service-for-tuition at UH's community colleges, stacking into the shipyard's apprentice-to-engineer path, keeps students on their home island through the cheapest two years, which is where cost of living pushes them out.
Tie federal work to local seats
The shipyard recapitalization, AMOS operations and the Hawaiian Electric buildout run past 2030 and are largely public money. Hawaii should condition state permits, land and utility approvals on funded Digital ROTC cohorts and paid in-state placements, so a decade of guaranteed engineering demand converts into resident careers rather than rotating mainland hires.
What Digital ROTC would fund
Digital ROTC: federal student loans that cover two years of engineering, computer science, or cybersecurity school at a community college, whether those years end in an associate degree or transfer into a bachelor’s program. The loans are forgiven in full after 24 to 36 months of service in government technology roles. In Hawaii, 24% of engineering-track credentials are associate degrees today. Digital ROTC is built to expand that community-college route.