Hawaii Apprenticeship Programs
Hawaii's registered-apprenticeship system is small — 4,500 active apprentices across 210 programs as of September 2026 — so its structure, not its size, is the story below.
- Active apprentices
- 4,500
- National rank
- #39 / 51
- Completion rate
- 59.2%
- Completion wage
- $34
Hawaii ranks #39 of 51 jurisdictions by active registered apprentices - about 0.5% of all U.S. registered apprentices. Its 59.2% completion rate sits 1 pts above the 58.2% national average, and apprentices who finish raise their pay by 89% - from $18 to $34 an hour.
Apprenticeship filing desk
Jurisdiction HA · Hawaii
Hawaii registered-apprenticeship filing: 4,500 active apprentices (rank 39/51), 210 programs, 59.2% completion.
- BOOK-TRACE 4,500
- RANK-LOWER #39
- PROG-SPARSE 210
- COMP-MID 59.2%
- WAGE-STRONG +89%
- SHARE-SMALL 0.5%
- NEW-FY 1,150
Nearest enrollment peer: Idaho (300 apprentice gap)
U.S. Department of Labor registered-apprenticeship filing stamps for this jurisdiction. Read: future proof careers
Where Hawaii sits among all 51 jurisdictions
Enrollment by jurisdiction; Hawaii is marked near the small end. Inventory size is not a quality ranking.
Hawaii vs all states by active apprentices
Where this state's DOL registered-apprenticeship enrollment sits among every tracked jurisdiction
4,500 39th of 51 higher than 12 of 51 states
States and territories, banded by active apprentices
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Department of Labor registered-apprenticeship data · 2026-09-25
Source: U.S. Department of Labor registered-apprenticeship data, compiled by PlainWorkforce.
Reading Hawaii's numbers
What stands out in this state's DOL filing, most distinctive first. Every figure below is computed from the state's own row in the dataset.
The signature stat: wage lift
The standout metric here is the wage arc: pay grows 88.9% from start to completion, a bigger jump than in 94% of states.
Where the scale sits
4,500 active apprentices rank 39 of 51 nationally, 0.5% of all registered enrollment.
Completion near the average
A 59.2% completion rate holds within two points of the national average (58.2%).
Many small programs
Enrollment is unusually distributed: 210 programs averaging 21.4 apprentices apiece against a 23.6 national norm. A long tail of small sponsors carries the system.
Slow intake pipeline
Intake is the soft spot. 1,150 new apprentices against 4,500 active is a 25.6% replacement rate, in the bottom tercile of states; the base renews more slowly than almost everywhere else.
Hawaii's largest registered-apprenticeship occupations, ranked by AI-exposure score, most sit well below the 37% occupation-wide average (the dotted line), which is exactly why the trades are AI-resilient. Bars link to the full occupation profile where tracked.
- Electrician 13%
- Operating Engineer 25%
- Plumber 27%
- Carpenter 28%
- Iron Worker -
AI-exposure scores are PlainWorkforce's analysis of O*NET task data; the 37% line is the average across all 832 tracked occupations. Lower = more AI-resilient.
Frequently asked questions
How many apprentices does Hawaii have?
About 4,500 active registered apprentices, one of the smaller state totals (rank 39 of 51), in roughly 210 programs.
What is the apprenticeship completion rate in Hawaii?
Roughly 59.2%, effectively at the national average of 58.2%.
How much do apprentices earn in Hawaii?
Starting pay averages $18.00/hour and completion pay $34.00 — a 88.9% increase, among the strongest wage progressions of any state.
What are the top apprenticeship trades in Hawaii?
The dataset's largest registered-apprenticeship occupations for Hawaii are Electrician, Plumber, Carpenter, Iron Worker, Operating Engineer — construction trades dominate registered apprenticeship in every state.
Why is Hawaii's apprentice pipeline slow?
The data shows the symptom, not the cause: 1,150 new registrations against 4,500 active apprentices is a 25.6% intake ratio, bottom-tercile nationally. The dataset does not record why sponsors register fewer new apprentices here.
Compare other states
What to do with this
Use Hawaii's apprenticeship numbers above to plan a specific trade path, not just compare states.
- Compare an apprenticeship path against a college degree using real wage and growth numbers. Apprenticeships vs college
- Browse the full occupation directory to check wage and AI exposure for a specific trade. Browse all occupations
- See which occupations are projected to add the most jobs through 2034. Fastest-growing occupations
Enrollment and completion vary by program and year; these figures come from the U.S. Department of Labor's Registered Apprenticeship data.
Every figure on PlainWorkforce is rendered directly from BLS/O*NET source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Enrollment and wage figures are rounded. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these figures, or report a data error. Data current as of U.S. Department of Labor, Registered Apprenticeship.
Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, Registered Apprenticeship (active apprentices, registered programs, completion rates, and wages by state), O*NET (occupation task data, for the linked AI-exposure scores).