Ditto everything above. I lived on Maui for a number of years and had to go back to the mainland for about 6 years, 5 of those in Southeast Florida. Job market here is worse than South Florida. Stats won't indicate that accurately but living here vs there will demonstrate it very quickly. You have many more options in South Florida within driving distance and SIGNIFICANTLY less cost of living.
Primarily two income levels here on Maui-
Top level executives with large tourist based businesses, medical/legal professionals, or top level high performance computer system jobs with Cray systems (all of which are very limited and have little turn over) or direct service jobs in hotel/activity/or service industry. The top level jobs are very hard to come by but can make life comfortable though still expensive with incomes in the 45K to 75K plus range.
Basic service jobs make it almost impossible to afford the cost of living unless you have a partner to share the cost. Pay is usually in the 15K to 20k range with the occassional job reaching 25k to 30k.
Example: 1 room efficiency possibly with hot plate and microwave is usually 600.00 to 850.00 per month not incl utilities, milk $4.50-8.00/gal, gas $3.85-3.95/gal, etc.
I'm currently still in Maui and wish I could afford to be forever but it is hard to swallow that I could be paying 1/2 the rent for a place twice the size in South Florida and could spent 1/3 less on food there. You won't likely have any money to put in savings here.
Good luck-try visit!
