Posted on: Sunday, May 23, 2004
Employment demand may push up wages
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawai'i companies hungry for good workers are considering offering better pay in an employment market suddenly friendly to job candidates.
With the state creating jobs faster than any other last month, and posting an unemployment rate of just 3.6 percent, company recruiters are scrambling to attract candidates.
"Gone are the days when you can just sit and pick up applicants," said Marion Masters, who heads employee recruitment for the Navy Exchange. The employer needs 40 new workers — about twice as many as usual — and will set up its first recruitment booth at the state's largest job fair Wednesday at the Neal Blaisdell Center along with at least a dozen other first-time companies. A record 121 companies signed up for the WorkForce 2004 job fair.
The Navy Exchange tends to pay well for jobs ranging from janitors to security to maintenance workers and supervisors, Masters said. But the exchange's officials are in the middle of their annual wage survey of comparable jobs to see if they need to pay more, she said.
"The unemployment rate's so low, we need to find ways to get good applicants," she said.
Sheri DeFreitas, human resources manager for Fernandes Entertainment, needs four manager trainees, four assistant managers, two commercial drivers and as many good customer service people as she can find for the company's five O'ahu and two Maui Fun Factory amusement centers.
"Yes, it is getting harder and harder," said DeFreitas, who also will staff a recruitment booth at the job fair. "What I'm seeing in the job market right now is that we may have to give more competitive pay" — but only for the best candidates, she said.
"They're in high demand right now. They can be a little bit more choosy because of the job market. There are so many jobs out there."
The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations would welcome higher wages, said spokesman James Hardway.
"We're always in favor of putting more money into the pockets of people," Hardway said. "The more money you put into an employee's hands, the more expendable cash that people are paying into the economy, and that means more taxes. We like that in government."
Lawrence Boyd, a labor economist at the University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu, worries that bigger salaries also could lead to inflation.
"When you get an unemployment rate around 3.6 percent, you're flirting at the edge of a labor shortage, and that tends to drive up higher wages and that could lead to inflation," Boyd said.
"But the good thing about higher wages is that wages tend to rise faster than inflation. It's really unusual when they don't."
Not all segments of the economy are expanding. Hawai'i lost 500 information jobs plus 300 telecommunications jobs in April. The shipbuilding and repair industry lost another 100 jobs.
But other employers are picking up the slack.
"We have found we have much better luck with local crews, when we can hire them," said Steve Koven, NOAA's port engineer.
The agency will be looking for everything from entry-level deck hands to Coast Guardilicensed engineers, Koven said.
"We've been pushing for a pool of local people, but hiring is hard," he said.
Sheraton Hotels & Resorts will return to the Blaisdell job fair after missing others earlier this year. The combination of increased hotel occupancy and employee retirements leaves Sheraton with 65 to 80 vacancies in four hotels.
Hawaiian Electric Co. also stopped going to job fairs after the one in September. "The economy was uncertain, so we had been very conservative in our hiring," said Faye Chiogioji, HECO's manager of workforce staffing and development.
With Hawai'i's economy now on a roll, HECO officials are trying to fill about a dozen positions.
Meanwhile, competition also is heating up for good jobs, Chiogioji said.
"We have a good number of applicants," she said. "But the good applicants are in the very nice position of having more than one company interested in them."
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wants to set up its first recruiting booth at Wednesday's job fair because it needs to staff a third NOAA ship that will arrive in Honolulu Harbor in July or August.
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Largest job fair
• What: WorkForce 2004 Job Fair, Hawai'i's largest job recruitment fair, featuring at least 121 companies and organizations from ABC Stores to the FBI to Worldwide Flight Service.
• Where: Neal Blaisdell Center.
• When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Cost: $2 general admission; $1 for students with a valid school identification.
• To register in advance or see a list of exhibitors: www.jobsurveys.com/workforce or call Success Advertising at 536-7222.
Sponsored by Altres Staffing, O'ahu WorkLinks and Success Advertising.
• Tips: Job candidates should dress for a job interview and bring multiple copies of resumés.
