Hawaii is focusing on nearly 485 civil-service positions that have remained unfilled for four years or more, with lawmakers considering reallocating the accumulated salaries tied to these jobs. While the financial math seems straightforward, past experience shows that the political, bureaucratic, and historical complexities make acting on these vacancies far more complicated.
What the annual vacancy report found
According to the Jan. 8 annual vacancy report from the Department of Human Resources Development, the executive branch had 17,574 civil-service positions as of Nov. 1, 2025, with 4,273 of them vacant. Within that count, the report flags 485 civil-service positions that have been vacant for four years or longer, breaking those “stagnant” jobs down agency by agency.
The Department of Health tops that list with 108 long-vacant posts, followed by Human Services with 92. Corrections and Rehabilitation accounts for 56 such positions, and Transportation has 76. Legislators see those numbers and immediately think about what else that payroll money could be doing.
Bills would force automatic abolitions
Two Senate proposals filed this month would speed up the cleanup. Sen. Sharon Moriwaki’s bill, SB3180, outlined on TrackBill, would automatically abolish any position left vacant for more than 48 months and tighten the rules on 89-day temporary hires.
Sen. Lorraine Inouye’s SB2014, logged on LegiScan, would require the DHRD director to abolish positions that have been empty for more than five years and send the associated salary funds back to the general fund. Supporters say that kind of automatic trigger could free up money quickly in a tight year. Skeptics warn that treating every vacancy the same could punch holes in already thin services if there is no plan to restructure or hire into different, more useful roles.
Where the money sits
Local reporting and public records show that many of those long-empty positions still have payroll lines attached to them. As first reported by The Garden Island, which cites the Department of Budget and Finance, about $20.7 million in general-fund dollars remains budgeted for positions that have been vacant for more than four years across the departments it administers.
Lawmakers say that even clawing back a portion of that pot could help soften a looming budget squeeze. In budget terms it is not a jackpot, but it is not pocket change either.
Past results show limited cuts
Act 57, passed in 2019, already gave DHRD the authority to reclassify or abolish vacant positions. On paper, that should have paved the way for regular housecleaning. In practice, the follow-through has been modest. Budget documents and prior reporting describe dozens of recommendations over several years but relatively few actual abolitions once those ideas reached the Legislature.
That track record helps explain why lawmakers tend to move carefully when the conversation turns to wiping positions off the books. Agency leaders and legislators alike are weighing the promise of short-term savings against the risk of cutting too deep into operations. For broader context on how vacancy rates have climbed, see reporting from Honolulu Civil Beat on the overall trend.
Why agencies push back
Agency heads and unions argue that not every vacancy is a mistake. Some positions, they say, are deliberately left open as a budget cushion or kept on the books to protect roles tied to grants and specialized programs that could restart later.
Recruitment data tell a mixed story. There are more applicants overall for state jobs, but actual hires still lag in hard-to-fill categories such as corrections officers, engineers and certain human-services positions. That persistent hiring lag makes it harder to simply erase vacant slots, according to reporting from Hawai‘i Public Radio. That combination of operational need and slow hiring sits at the center of the current debate.
Legal process under Act 57
Under Act 57, the DHRD director has to submit a list of positions proposed for reclassification or abolishment to the Legislature at least 20 days before each regular session, and cannot act earlier than 60 days after that notice. That timetable, spelled out in DHRD’s annual report, is designed to give lawmakers and budget analysts a formal window to press agencies on why a position should live or die and to track where the money would go if it is abolished.
What’s next
The new bills are already in motion. SB2014 is set for a Labor and Technology committee hearing on Wednesday, while SB3180 had been scheduled for Feb. 9 before a committee pulled it from the public hearing agenda, according to legislative trackers. As the session moves on, committees will pick apart DHRD’s vacancy lists and agency rebuttals before deciding whether to endorse mechanical, across-the-board abolitions or stick with a case-by-case approach that leans toward preserving program continuity.
If the measures become law, state leaders will have to choose between freeing up relatively modest sums now or keeping long-vacant positions as an operational cushion for future needs. Either way, expect the real fight to play out in the fine print over which specific jobs stay, which go and when, as the Legislature grinds through the rest of the budget calendar.
