Recession costs Hawaii hundreds of businesses

Honolulu, the state’s largest metropolitan area, had 300 fewer businesses after the onset of the recession, according to a new analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Maui, the Big Island and Kauai lost between 1.5 percent and 3 percent of their businesses between 2008 and 2009, according to the analysis by On Numbers, an affiliate of Pacific Business News.

Honolulu, Hilo, Kahului-Wailuku and Kapaa were among 870 metropolitan and micropolitan areas that had fewer businesses in 2009 than in 2008. The recession officially began in December 2007.

Honolulu had 22,044 businesses in 2008, but that number declined to 21,748 in 2009, a net loss of 296 businesses, or 1.34 percent. The number of businesses in Hilo declined from 4,261 in 2008 to 4,197 in 2009, a net change of 64, or 1.5 percent. On Maui, the number of businesses went from 4,564 in 2008 to 4,450 in 2009, a net change of 114, or 2.5 percent. And on Kauai, the number of businesses in Kapaa went from 1,978 in 2008 to 1,919 in 2009, a net change of 59, or 2.98 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of private-sector jobs in Honolulu declined by more than 4 percent since the onset of the recession, according to an analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were 360,600 private-sector jobs in the Honolulu metropolitan area in September 2007, according to an analysis by On Numbers. That number fell to 345,300 by September of this year, a drop of 15,300 jobs, or 4.24 percent, the analysis found.