Wages for Hawai'i workers are on the rise as the state's unemployment rate remains the lowest in the nation.

Between January 2005 and last January, the average salary in Honolulu rose 5 percent to $14.10 per hour, said Lawrence Boyd, a labor economist at the University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu. The median salary also rose to $12 an hour, meaning half of workers earned more and half earned less.

"A 5 percent rise in salaries beats the Honolulu inflation rate of 3.8 percent," Boyd said. "So real wages are rising — and they're rising because there's a great demand for workers, a very high demand."

Hawai'i's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in January hit a 15-year low of 2.4 percent, the state Labor Department reported yesterday. Hawai'i has led the nation with the lowest unemployment for 21 consecutive months.

The national, seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.7 percent in January. No other state had a January unemployment rate below 3 percent.

"That is remarkable — 2.4 percent," said Leroy Laney, a Hawai'i Pacific University professor of economics and finance. "It means job availability is there, but we're running out of people to serve those jobs. Across the entire state, in various sectors of the economy, I've heard this story repeated over and over and over — whether it's the inability to hire entry-level, unskilled workers to hospitals that say they can't get enough doctors. There are no exceptions."

Hawai'i's continuing low unemployment means "our whole society needs to look at this," said Rolanse Crisafulli, administrator for O'ahu WorkLinks, a partnership of government, business and nonprofit groups aimed at helping employers find and train qualified workers.

Educators at all levels in the Islands need to ensure that students are getting the educations they need that will lead to good jobs, Crisafulli said.

"On the other end, we need to make sure we don't lose anybody, like retirees, if we can give them incentives to stay on longer," she said. "We want employers to think of people, like those with disabilities. And they have to begin to realize that they can't compete for workers if they just keep paying the minimum wage."

Beth Busch, the executive director of the WorkForce Job Fair, expects a record number of recruiters to turn out for the May 24 job fair at the Neal Blaisdell Center.

"We'll get 200 easy — probably well over that," Busch said. "It's not one particular segment of the economy that's spiking. It's just across-the-board good times."

The last WorkForce Job Fair in January drew 182 employers.

The competition for job candidates is getting fierce. If employers can't offer significantly higher salaries, Busch says, they are becoming more flexible to make themselves attractive to job seekers.

"It's not to the level that you can bring your dog to work or it doesn't matter if your hair's purple," Busch said, "but I'm seeing more relaxed dress codes, more telecommuting, more flexible scheduling. We're going to see more and more of it here in Hawai'i because of all of this."

In January, Jamba Juice began offering $10,000 bonuses to general managers who stay with the company for three years, said spokeswoman Sherri Rigg.

Last fall, Jamba Juice also started an employee referral program in which "team members" earn bonuses for each employee they recruit who stays at least 90 days: $200 for each team member; $400 for "team leads" — or managers on duty; $750 for assistant general managers; and $1,000 for general managers.

"Recruiting is part of it," Rigg said. "But the No. 1 priority for human resources is retaining people."

Kiinani Dodge, human resources director at Paradise Cove Luau, wrestles with keeping employees because there are so many jobs available "that they just go from place to place," she said.

Dodge just finished staffing the company's annual job fair yesterday and still needed to fill dozens of openings, including bartenders, landscapers, lifeguards, entertainers and reservationists.

"We're definitely feeling it," Dodge said.

While employers are hurting for new workers, the O'ahu Workforce Investment Board has met with leaders in the healthcare, construction and visitor industries and found common shortcomings with their job candidates, said Debbie Kim Morikawa, the city's director of community services.

"Being able to come to work on time, communication skills, problem-solving, taking initiative — those are the things that are common elements that many employees don't have," Morikawa said. "Even when you can get the bodies, these are skills that just aren't there, especially in the entry-level positions where the greatest need is."

So the O'ahu Workforce Investment Board is working to develop a training program to help job seekers, Morikawa said.

But at the start-up Wahoo's Fish Taco restaurant, president Mike Pietsch has a more immediate problem of trying to hire another 35 full- and part-time employees with experience.

"I've already filled all of the entry-level positions," Pietsch said. "It's just so tough to get experienced, reliable people."

Whenever he places a newspaper help wanted ad, Pietsch finds himself staring at "two full pages of restaurants and hotels that are also hiring.

"There's a ton of competition," Pietsch said. "It's just crazy."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.