Financial Times

Jobsnet struggles to find work for unemployed
By Quintus Perera
JobsNet, a joint public-private sector partnership established in 2003 to help the unemployment and operate as a matchmaking service, has been able to obtain jobs for a mere 10 percent out of a 143,268 job applicants up to now while the number of vacancies on the website has risen to more than 180,000.
Yet all the stake holders in this project – the Employers Federation, trade unions, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the government have agreed in principle that JobsNet should continue.

Mark Vansteenkiste, International Labour Office Colombo, Project Advisor JobsNet told the Sunday Times FT that the reasons for the continuing mismatch in jobs is because a majority of the job seekers want unskilled jobs, haven’t worked before or have been unemployed for more than six months. Most jobs listed on the website require skills or experience.

Most of them are from rural areas. He said at least 40 percent of the online applicants want government jobs. JobsNet was funded during the first phase of this project but in future it would be run as a self-sustaining, limited liability company. The annual budget for the first phase of the funded programme was Rs 40 million. However, 30 percent of these funds were recovered through fee-levying services.

Employers who used the service were charged while job seekers had free access. The project would continue as a tripartite programme between the private sector, the ministry and trade unions but would be run as an independent organisation.

JobsNet operates as an information referral system primarily with regard to job opportunities for Sri Lankans either in the island or overseas. It is jointly managed by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Labour. The funding for the programme comes from Swedish International Development Agency while the International Labour Organization provides technical support in management and administration.

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