Target to Open in Hawaii in March

Yesterday at the Hawaii Convention Center, people were lined up as early as 4.30am to be interviewed for jobs at the two new Target stores, opening on Oahu in March 2009. Read the full report from the Honolulu Advertiser - here. The declining American economy has impacted the state of Hawaii significantly - in fact, even my previous employer, Communications Pacific has had to lay off people and cut the hours of some, which really surprised me. Due to rising joblessness on O'ahu alone, the ranks of the unemployed have grown from from 11,250 last December to 17,350 as of October, which made for a highly competitive atmosphere at yesterday's job fair. That's a huge amount of unemployed people, given the population of the O'ahu is just over one million people.

Target was able to process over 1,000 applicants who turned up for interviews yesterday, and the good news is that there are still positions available. The job market in Hawaii now is more competitive than ever before, and people with good skills and experience alone will need to show that they have that extra something if they want to be considered for a position. My suggestion: if you are unemployed and have some spare time, start learning a new skill, or undertake some training so you will be ready when the right role presents itself. You can never learn too much!