The State Department of Transportation is looking to hire between 200 to 300 people, including 50 engineers.
The mass hiring is part of Governor Abercrombie's New Day Plan for immediate job growth.
Specifically, the DOT wants to hire fifty engineers, of all different levels.
This help wanted ad was recently posted on the State's website.
"You know there was a hiring freeze in the State for something like three years, and during that time a lot of engineer positions opened up because of retirement or gentlemen and ladies moved on to the private sector. And so now we got the green light to do our hiring," said Dan Meisenzahl, DOT Spokesman.
When Governor Abercrombie gave his New Day Status Report speech two weeks ago, he said one of the immediate goals is to create jobs by doing things like "bringing our transportation infrastructure into the 21st century."
"Maybe it's a chance for some people to come back to Hawaii, or some people who are here in Hawaii, get a chance to work for the State and be a part of the Department of Transportation which is responsible for so much," said Meisenzahl.
The DOT operates 15 airports, 10 commercial harbors, and a 2,433-mile highway system throughout Hawaii.
Current engineering job openings are on Oahu and Maui, and future vacancies are anticipated on other islands.
"Planning, to designing bridges, to you name it, it's going to be out there, or overseeing projects. It could be highway projects, it could be anything," said Meisenzahl.
Money to pay for the new hires won't come from the State's general fund, but rather from special funds -- specifically user fees.
"So whether that's the airlines, the vendors at the airports, and the passenger fees; harbors it's the cargo ships that come in and keeping their equipment on our properties there, and passenger ships; and highways is of course registration, vehicle weight, gas tax and rental surcharge," said Meisenzahl.
There's no closing date for applications. They'll stop looking once they fill the openings.
More information:
http://hawaii.gov/hrd/main/esd/
http://hawaii.gov/dot
The DOT will also have a table at the Job Quest career fair on September 20th at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall.
