The big draw at today’s JobQuest job fair at the Neal Blaisdell Center will be Swinerton Builders, which is bringing more than 40 subcontractors to hire for the renovation of the Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Federal Building and Courthouse and other large construction projects.

The event’s organizers said they have reserved a separate banquet room at the Blaisdell to accommodate what they expect will be about 500 job seekers applying for the Swinerton construction jobs.

The hiring is welcome news for Oahu’s construction sector, which has lost scores of jobs as a result of the economic recession. The latest jobs report from the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations showed that 2,000 construction jobs were eliminated in July while other industries posted big gains, including an increase of 2,700 positions in the education and health services sectors, and 700 jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry.

Swinerton is in a hiring mode, said Beth Busch, president of Success Advertising.

Nearly 130 employers have signed up for booths at the event, not including the Swinerton subcontractors, Busch said. The event is expected to draw about 5,500 job seekers, she added.

Success Advertising puts on the WorkForce Job Fair in May and the JobQuest Job Fairs in January and September.

The ratio of employers to job seekers expected at the event is about what would be expected in the current job environment with a statewide unemployment rate running about 6.3 percent, Busch said. Last May, when unemployment was running at a three-decade high, the job fair drew a record 6,500 job seekers, she said.