Employers searching to fill vacant spots found qualified contenders at Tuesday’s Career Expo, despite the state’s low unemployment rate.

With the state’s jobless rate at 2.7 percent, about 140 hopeful employers set up booths at the Neal Blaisdell Center Exhibition Hall seeking to fill positions. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, ALTRES Staffing, Monster.com and Territorial Savings Bank sponsored the Career Expo.

Jen Yamane, senior human resources business partner at HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union, said her company is seeking to fill positions from entry level to management to different information technology positions.

“The unemployment rate contributes a lot to the low number of applicants, but through the expo we have always found someone,” she said.

Terence Holmes, human resources generalist at Roberts Hawaii, said he hasn’t seen as many applicants, but most of the nearly 30 people he spoke to Tuesday were more qualified than in previous years.

“We’ve seen less, but the applicants who come have been more qualified,” he said. The company has about 40 positions open in Honolulu, from drivers and gate monitors to financial analysts and mechanic technicians.

Holmes said Hawaii’s high cost of living has led to applicants, who already have one job, stopping by the Roberts Hawaii booth seeking part-time work.

“Some are already employed, but they’re looking for something to do on the weekends to supplement their income,” he said.

Nearly half of 503 Hawaii residents who responded to a survey put on by Honolulu-based QMark Research said they live “paycheck to paycheck,” according to a 2016 study prepared for Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law &Economic Justice.

Tuesday’s Career Expo was Keri-Ann Oshiro’s second time applying for jobs through the event. Oshiro, 30, said she returned to apply for an administrative job after being linked up with the now-closed Pineapple Room last year.

“Last year I came and got hired at Pineapple Room,” she said. “I’m back again because, unfortunately, they closed.”

First-timers also filled the exposition’s aisles.

Waipahu resident Kekoa Gushikuma, 17, said he is seeking a part-time position that he can juggle with schoolwork while he attends Honolulu Community College.

“I’m looking for a part-time job and something that would help me out during school,” he said. “Something that relates to auto mechanics. That’s what I’ll be taking in college.”

Janine Wedemeyer, human resources and recruiting manager for Mina Group, said The Street, a Michael Mina Social House hired about 216 people, from management to hourly, when it opened in May at the International Market Place. Now, she said, she has roughly 20 more positions to fill.

“We’re looking for about 20 candidates to fill culinary and barbacks and cashier positions,” she said.

Wedemeyer said her team has found a handful of candidates to bring in for second interviews from the exposition. “This has been really good for us.”