A crowd estimated at 5,000 to 6,000 people showed up this morning at Honolulu Community College for the annual Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard Career Fair.

Applicants were there for a chance at 175 apprentice, engineer and engineering support positions even as the state’s unemployment rate is holding steady at 6.9 percent, according to figures just released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That remains the highest unemployment rate in Hawaiçi in more than 30 years.
The shipyard is looking to hire a minimum of 100 apprentices who will begin employment in January 2011. It also expects to fill 75 engineering positions.
Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard is the state’s largest industrial employer, with some 4,700 men and women and a payroll of more than $426 million.