Singapore's first national jobs bank website launched

[SINGAPORE] Singapore's first national jobs bank website was officially launched yesterday catering to local job seekers.

The Jobs Bank, first announced by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) last year, already lists more than 16,000 positions with about half of them targeted at professionals, managers and executives (PMEs).

The website has been set up by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) to enhance labour market transparency and facilitate job matching between employers and local job seekers.

Under the Fair Consideration Framework, which takes effect from Aug 1, companies looking to hire Employment Pass holders must post job vacancies on the website for at least 14 days, and consider Singaporeans fairly, before applying for an Employment Pass with the MOM.

The Jobs Bank will help develop a Singaporean core as it will enable Singaporeans to explore and apply for jobs and give employers access to a larger pool of local candidates.

"While many employers shared with us that they would like to develop a Singaporean core in their workforce, they sometimes found it difficult to find suitable Singaporeans for the job," Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin said at the launch of the portal yesterday.

"At the same time, unemployed Singaporeans told me about difficulties in finding and securing for themselves a suitable job. We are creating many job opportunities in our economy, but we need a better, more systematic way to match job seekers to vacancies."

Since WDA launched the beta version of the Jobs Bank in May, more than 4,300 employers and 12,900 job seekers have registered to use the platform. Singaporeans may use their SingPass to create an account on the Jobs Bank.

WDA said that the website complements other existing job-search platforms, and not compete with them. WDA added that it is currently in consultation with private job portals and will be discussing possible collaboration arrangements in the coming months.

With the launch of the website yesterday at the Lifelong Learning Institute in Paya Lebar, WDA also organised a Jobs Bank career fair. More than 1,500 job opportunities were offered at the fair by 15 major employers from different industries.