DOLE launches enhanced job portal

The Labor Department launched Thursday an enhanced portal for job-seekers in order to address the job-skills mismatch in the country's labor market.

Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Rosalinda Dimapalis-Baldoz said some 600,000 to 700,000 fresh graduates enter the labor force every year.

^{Baldoz explains enhancements on Philippine JobNet at Quezon City forum-launching.  —KG Tacadena}

"Unfortunately, not every one of these [job] aspirants [get a job]... many of them become unemployed," she said.

According to her, the DOLE has partnered with the Bureau of Local Employment and the Servicio Filipino group to enhance the Philippine JobNet (PJN) Website.

PhilJobNet is the Philippine government's online job portal where job-seekers and employers meet.

Addressing user complaints

"At that stage, users complain of the [job portatl's] functionality —inadequate data, and limited job search capabilities," Dimapilis-Baldoz said.

Add to that the slow internet capability in the country.

With the portal's current 1.1 million registered job seekers, Baldoz said,  "We have adressed the existing and Techical issues and limitation..."

The enhanced PJN would be able to sort and filter jobs in the labor market suitable and accessible for high school students, women,  persons with disabilities, senior citizens, and Overseas Filipino workers.

Also, she said that the enhanced PJN is packed with new features, including links to social media

"The opening up of PJN to a wider audience of jobseekers and employers has democratized access to timely, relevant, and accurate labor market of information," she said.

The PJN also incorporated a Talent Map Tool to complement DOLE's Philippine Talent Map Initiative (PTMI).

The PTMI aims to categorize and examine current trends in the workforce to address the labor market gaps.

As of March 4, PJN has already made available 155, 280 jobs this year.

In the past two decades, Baldoz said, the country's unemployment rate has fluctuated between 7 to 14 percent, almost twice the rates in South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia during the late 1980s to 1990s.

While she claimed that the country's employment rate had been one of the fastest in Asia in the 1990s, the upward trend was not enough to significantly reduce unemployment.

"It is because of the increase in population and fast turnover of labor force participation," Baldoz said.

She said that the high underemployment rate during the '90s had led to the setting up of the PJN.

PJN was first introduced during the time of President Fidel Ramos in 1998. A second version was launched by then President Joseph Estrada as part of his pro-poor program.

Meanwhile, the DOLE is conducting a job fair Thursday (March 10) at the Occupational Safety and Health Center in Quezon City, with 130,000 overseas jobs up for grabs. — LBG, GMA News