Isle ventures to
aid job seekers

Star-Bulletin staff

The state is opening a job assistance center to help businesses find skilled workers and to link job seekers with potential employers.

The opening comes in the wake of a private company launching an Internet job placement and recruiting center.

The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said yesterday it will open its One Stop Workforce Assistance Center on Thursday at the agency's headquarters at 830 Punchbowl St.

The center will pool government and community resources, facilities and staff to help businesses and job seekers.

The Punchbowl unit will be the first of a series of job offices as the Labor Department links with the city's WorkHawaii job training program.

A WorkHawaii employment resource center will open April 1 in the Dillingham Shopping Plaza and other state-city partnership offices will open during the next 12 months in Waianae, Kapolei, Waipahu, Waialua and Kaneohe.

Labor Director Lorraine Akiba said 14 state, county and community partners are involved in creating the new resource centers. Similar centers are planned for other islands.

In the private sector, a company called JobsHawaii opened its Internet site, www.jobshawaii.com, with several major Hawaii employers listing jobs currently available and allowing job seekers to search for jobs by category, location and other criteria.

Randall E. Shiroma, a Honolulu publishing and marketing executive, said he started the business because the Internet has become a major job placement and job seeking tool elsewhere.

Shiroma has partnered with husband and wife Internet consultants Peter and Shawnja Yamaguchi to set up the site.

Employers listing jobs on the site so far include Outrigger Hotels & Resorts, the city's Jobs-Hawaii, the Maui Divers jewelry business, a health care business called CareResource Hawaii and others.

The jobs available range from clerical staff to professional goldsmiths and computer programmers.