Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard said Thursday that it plans to hire 731 workers this fiscal year, a significant boost for high-paying jobs at the state’s largest industrial employer.

The shipyard has 4,523 civilian workers and 462 military members, spokesman Sean Hughes said.

The shipyard apprentice class of a little more than 300 new hires is expected to be the biggest the yard has ever had — including all the way back to World War II when the most hired in a year was a little more than 200, Hughes said.

“It’s keeping up with fleet demands,” Hughes of the new hiring.

The Navy is hiring at its four public shipyards nationwide as it attempts to keep pace with scheduled fleet maintenance, The Associated Press reported.

Part of the Pearl Harbor hiring has to do with regeneration of an aging workforce.

“We’ve got a little over 900 people at the shipyard who are retirement eligible, so that’s a lot of folks who could be going out the door,” Hughes said.