The State of Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism will be conducting a Consumer Expenditure Survey that will be mailed to randomly selected Honolulu households this month.
“It’s been a decade since we have had reliable information on consumer spending patterns,” DBEDT Director Richard Lim said. “Collecting this data will enable us to analyze the underlying components of Hawaii’s cost of living; thereby helping us to understand key issues like self-sufficiency income level requirements.”
“Consumer expenditure data was previously published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,” State Economist Eugene Tian added. “However, since 2005, Honolulu data is no longer published by BLS due to federal budget restrictions.”
The survey is designed to collect 2013 Hawaii household spending for various categories including food, shelter, transportation, and health care.
“Participation from each randomly selected household is essential to the project’s success,” Tian said. “If your household receives the questionnaire, DBEDT asks that you please take time to fill it completely with your best estimates.”
DBEDT has selected SMS Research to design and conduct the survey. The questionnaire will be mailed out first to Honolulu households and then to Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai counties.
All specific survey data will be strictly confidential. Only aggregated results will be released to the public.