Gov. Corbett Announces New Website To Aid Pennsylvania Jobseekers.

Capitolwire

During a press conference at the Hershey Medical Center, Gov. Tom Corbett announced the latest edition of the state’s free website that connects employers with potential employees.

The JobGateway website allows potential employees to post their resumes and find job recommendations tailored to their specific skill-sets and allows employers to search through resumes easily to find qualified candidates.

“This website provides a solution for those looking for work,” Corbett said. “JobGateway will now bring our workers and employers together, quickly and more effectively.”

Julia Hearthway, secretary of the Department of Labor and Industry, said when Gov. Corbett took office he asked the cabinet to look at the existing systems jobseekers had to reach employers and make sure they were the most effective possible.

“We found there were a number of barriers getting in the way of job seekers reaching employers and employers reaching the skilled workers they needed,” Hearthway said.

In an effort to connect employers and job seekers in a high-tech and efficient way the state created the database that is easily searchable on both sides, which Hearthway said provides real-time job postings that expire after 30 days.

The website sees an average of around 200,000 job openings at any given time and around 3,500 new jobs are posted each day.

More than 300,000 job seekers visited the site in the past month and more than 2.5 million job applications have been posted on the site since it went live in 2012.

The state did a “soft-launch” of the website last July to help unemployment claimants find jobs. In October they added more search features and an easier to understand user interface, and in April they added a mobile site for phone users.

“As social media has changed the way we interact with each other, JobGateway will change the way people in Pennsylvania search for jobs,” Hearthway said.

The website has received awards from the Computer World and TechQuest for using technology to support government duty in a cost effective way, Hearthway said.

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