A&B head sees no Hawaii downturn

A&B head sees no Hawaii downturn The chief executive of Oakland-based Matson Navigation's parent firm believes the recent downturn in the Hawaiian economy is nothing like the 1990s slump, but that the state needs further development of its workforce.
   “There’s no doubt that we’re going from a higher-growth environment to a lower-growth environment,” Alexander & Baldwin's CEO Allen Doane told Pacific Business News. “We’re not going from a higher-growth environment to a no-growth environment.”
   Doane did not discount further slowing in both the island state's economy and that of the nation in general.
   “You see that all over,” he told PBN. “You see it in Matson shipments. You see it in bank deposits. You see it in new car sales. You see it in new home construction and resale of homes.'
   Ignoring these signs, Doane told the paper, is like trying to defy the laws of economic gravity.
   Doane said a key concern for Hawaii-based A&B is finding qualified workers for available jobs, due in part to the state's low unemployment rate.
   “I think the theme of the next five years — maybe the next decade or longer — is that the largest scarce resource we have are really capable people,” he told PBN. “We’ve got a lot of them, but you can never get too many.”