A High-tech national jobs portal was launched on Tuesday to better match local jobseekers with employers. It can prioritize search results according to the relevance of the jobseeker’s skills, and filter results to show those under government schemes to support training, among other key features.
The new portal, called MyCareersFuture.sg, was developed by Workforce Singapore (WSG) and the Government Technology Agency (GovTech).
It replaces the interface of the existing Jobs Bank for users, and WSG said it aims to roll out the function for employers to post jobs by the end of this year.
For now, employers are still to post jobs on the Jobs Bank, and the posts will be shown on MyCareerFuture.sg.
A pilot run of the new portal was conducted with 100 users in the last three months of 2017, and the site went live in January this year. It has received 280,000 visitors as of the first week of April.
To calculate the relevancy of jobseekers’ skills, which is displayed as a percentage from zero to 100, the system uses machine learning to analyse job descriptions and identify the skills needed.
It then compares these with skills that the jobseeker has indicated.
For example, after searching for “communications manager” jobs, a user will be prompted to select the skills he has, such as public relations, social media, marketing, or strategic communications.
The job results will then be listed according to how closely his skills match what is required for those positions. Clicking on a job post will also show other relevant skills that the jobseeker lacks.
WSG group director for Careers Connect Lynn Ng said this feature is to encourage jobseekers to reflect on the skills and experience they have.
“It’s better than just submitting applications based on the job title, salary or company name,” she added.
Search results also display upfront the number of applications for the position and when it was posted. On the Jobs Bank portal, jobseekers had to log in using their SingPass in order to view this information.
The Jobs Bank was launched in July 2014 as part of the Fair Consideration Framework to boost employment prospects for Singaporean professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs). Companies have to post job ads on the portal for at least 2 weeks before they can apply for an Employment Pass for the role.
From July 1 this year, this rule will be extended to cover firms with at least 10 workers and for jobs paying under S$15,000 a month. Currently, it applies only to firms with at least 26 workers and for jobs paying under S$12,000 a month.
So far, more than 300,000 jobseekers and about 30,000 employers have registered on the Jobs Bank. WSG said at a media briefing it does not have statistics on the number or share of successful matches, as not all employers update the status of job applications in the portal.
It said the new portal is meant to complement the MySkillsFuture.sg portal, which was rolled out last year and caters to the wider population besides jobseekers. It provides information on career pathways and training available.
WSG will roll out more features for the new portal later this year, such as recommending suitable candidates for employers based on applicants’ CVs, and giving jobseekers tips on how to improve their CV for each job application.