Chamber kicks off online job bank

In an effort to help returning college students and other local residents find jobs in the private sector, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce will spearhead a project to create a jobs online website for the Commonwealth.

The Chamber board of directors has appropriated $2,000 from the budget of this non-profit organization to kick off the project, which is being developed by its Membership Committee. The Chamber will solicit matching funds from other business organizations and possibly also some government grants to help with the project.

According to the Chamber, the website will feature sections where people can post their own qualifications and interests in finding a job, as well as look for jobs that are available at local firms. The Chamber has met with representatives from the Department of Labor and Immigration regarding the possibility of including listings of people looking for jobs through that department as part of the site.

“If we are able to include the full list of people who are applying at the Division of Labor to find jobs, we might be able to better help them get employed in the private sector,” said Chamber president Lynn A. Knight. “A common complaint of businesses is that the applicants sent by Labor don’t always match the skills and qualifications of the positions we have open. If personnel managers could shop through the whole list of people who are available to work, this might help speed up the hiring process.”

Ms. Knight said that the idea for the website was brought up several months ago by Chamber Board member Alex Sablan of Saipan Shipping Company in one of the Chamber’s regular breakfast meetings with Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio. The Chamber’s Membership Committee then ran with the idea, soliciting proposals for the site design and reviewing the features of similar websites in the U.S. mainland and Guam.

“We’re still developing the site plans, but one of the reasons why we’ve decided to announce this now is that we’ve heard that the Senate is considering spending half a million dollars of the 2001 budget for a new government office to help returning college students find jobs. We thought it might be a good time to let them know what the business community is doing to help promote local hiring,” said Ms. Knight. “We don’t know the full details of the Senate proposal, but $500,000 seems like a lot of money to spend on a placement office which will help only returning college students when we can utilize Internet technology to help all residents find jobs.”

Ms. Knight noted that virtually all NMI college students who are studying overseas have access to the Internet and could check out the local job opportunities online before they even return to the islands.