The Chamber of Commerce Hawaiʻi surveyed 217 members about current workforce issues in the wake of federal, state and local mandates requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested regularly.
About 53% of the businesses in the survey say the biggest challenge is finding and retaining qualified workers.
However, that figure is down from 86% in a similar survey in May.
Forty-six percent say President Biden’s Sept. 9 call for employers with more than 100 employees to require COVID-19 vaccinations would affect their ability to retain workers.
Still, when it comes to new hiring, businesses said finding workers with the necessary experience is more of a concern than vaccine mandates.
Of those surveyed, 52% say that workforce shortage is due to a lack of candidates with necessary experience, and 21% due to vaccination and testing mandates.
Forty-two percent of businesses say that 90-100% of their employees are currently vaccinated.
Statewide, 68.7% of the entire population has been fully vaccinated, according to the state's COVID-19 dashboard. About 80% of those eligible, aged 12 and over, have been fully vaccinated.
