More than 450 people attended a jobs fair in hopes of getting one of 130 posts up for offer in the hospitality industry.

The Ministry of Home Affairs partnered with the Bermuda Hotel Association and the Chamber of Commerce to host the fair, which was held at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess last week.

“I was very impressed with this year’s group of applicants. They were well prepared and we genuinely hope that many of them will be successful in finding employment as a result of Friday’s job expo,” Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy said.

“We have an eight percent unemployment rate and we need to ensure that we have programmes in place to address this issue.

“The Hospitality Job Fair is one initiative that helps in our efforts to employ Bermudians. The hospitality industry can be a very rewarding career choice, and there were dozens of jobs available, so we really hope that many of these positions will be taken up by Bermudians.”

The One Bermuda Alliance promised to take measures to grow the economy and get Bermudians back to work during their election campaigning last year.

Government says that about 470 people attended the fair.

Some 600 jobs were up for grabs at the previous Hospitality Job Fair last November, which attracted 684 people.

Bermuda’s unemployment rate is eight percent, with close to 4,000 unemployed and nearly 7,000 underemployed.

Sen Fahy was asked whether he would keep the training programmes of the former Government and continue a policy of imposing work permit moratoria for certain job categories.

“As we continue our transitional phase all training programmes and initiatives will be reviewed and assessed,” he said.

He added that “training will be ongoing and moratoriums may be phased out as policies are strengthened to ensure that Bermudians are provided an opportunity to fully participate in the workforce”.