Employers at Career Expo look to fill vacancies amid Hawaii’s improving job market

Recruiters at the Hawaii Career Expo Wednesday found some job seekers looking to get a foot in the door on a new career and others looking for flexible, part-time work.

The job fair was held amid the ongoing recovery in Hawaii’s post-pandemic job market. In June, the statewide unemployment rate was 4.3%, with about 28,900 residents unemployed and looking for work, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

The improving job market has left many employers struggling to fill vacancies. Ninety-seven of those employers from the private, public and nonprofit sectors were recruiting at the expo, hosted by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and U.S. Vets Hawai‘i at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center Exhibition Hall.

Participating employers included Navy Region Hawaii, which has hundreds of vacancies and was attracting much interest Wednesday.

“A lot of people (are) looking for civilian military jobs,” said Lt. Andrew Lund, a Navy recruiter. “Most people are younger, (but some) were older, above our age limit, the cutoff of 42.”

Francis Tabios, a human resources specialist for the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation, said he was seeing “a lot of people looking for anything,” but especially entry-level positions.

The Honolulu Fire Department is short five mechanics, said superintendent Jay Apuya. “Mechanics are really hard to come by,” he said.

Hawaii Pacific Health, which runs Straub, Wilcox, Pali Momi and Kapiolani medical centers, has 600 positions open, both specialized and entry level, according to Leah Vaughn, the company’s human resources coordinator.

The health care company has been hiring nurses from the mainland, offering signing bonuses and running a high school development program in Hawaii, Vaughn said. In critical care and acute care units alone, there are 60 openings for nurses, she said.

In the past year, the sector in Hawaii seeing the greatest relative growth in employment was leisure and hospitality, up 12.6% to 110,600 jobs, followed by the information sector, up 8.9% to 8,600 jobs, according to DBEDT data.

Hawaii’s tourism industry was well-represented at the job fair, including recruiters from the Polynesian Cultural Center and Roberts Hawaii, as well as several Waikiki businesses.

“There have been some people who are looking for flexible, part-time positions,” said Heather Aki-Marcos, a culture and engagement manager for the Honolulu Cookie Co. The company has locations in Ala Moana and Waikiki, but “not everyone wants to travel or work in that area,” she said.