To think all UK jobs should be advertised in one place.

[tuffluv]

There are so many employment agencies, jobs boards and the like, I'm not surprised some people don't know where to start looking for a job. Out of interest, I just had a look at the Government's collection of 'resources to help jobseekers' (here: jobhelp.campaign.gov.uk/resources/). It's pretty pathetic. When I look for jobs for myself I use LinkedIn and subscribe to a couple of other jobs boards but always have a feeling I'm probably missing lots of suitable roles. Why can't the government just provide one big database where all employers can post job adverts for a nominal fee? So long as it had good filters it would make life so much easier.

... I would like a law which says every job must be advertised, and in a single database.

It’s a bit like saying “there’s too many shops, the government should organise one big shop that sells everything”. Monstrous task, prone to failure, delivered massively over budget with missing bits, and every taxpayer feeling let down. Current situation is not ideal but it’s not a job for central govt.

My husband is a (literate) warehouse operative, who kept the country supplied and therefore functioning throughout the pandemic.

@tuffluv and when your one website puts other job sites out of business and those people are made redundant?

Also a single point of failure is always a bad option

Besides which, as much as i hate a government which encourages trade and consumerism to the point of disregard of the workforce, a government which restricts specific trade and commerce in oder to control it will give you bigger employment issues than simply having to look at a few job boards

And honestly, Id prefer the government put its time and effort into things that desperately need their attention, healthcare, education, post covid economic recovery, post brexit work than wasting time on new laws because you simply cant be bothered to look in more than one place for a job.

I say this as someone who was made redundant a few months ago and had to find a new job so i do understand the faff

It is such a stupid idea on so many levels
Is the government also expected to handle all applications for these jobs or just be a shop window?

DH and I work is absolutely unrelated industries but both our companies have roles which have the same job title but are absolutely unconnected roles - let’s call the role ‘head mixer’ (made up obvs) which means in charge of mixing concrete on a construction site OR putting together music for an advertising agency

Which is not a problem, because my company advertises roles on job sites specific to our industry, and DH’s company does the same

So someone who looks on ‘constructionjobs.com’ and sees a job, they know what it means

If someone sees the job on ‘AllUKJobs.com’, you’re going to get a lot of musicians applying to mix concrete or a lot of concrete mixers applying to make ad music

And yes of course the job description will specify but you really think people who have a target number of jobs to apply for per week are going to read much past the job title, you are very much mistaken

So who then takes on the Herculean task for sorting all the applications..?

What about when companies need to recruit discretely..? Because they’ve won a new contract that is currently confidential and won’t start for months but they need to get a team in place first?
Oh look! We can see what company X is about to launch/do/stop doing because they’ve had to publish all the job ads!

And above a certain seniority level, jobs are headhunted, not advertised
You think those roles should be posted on the same place as min wage cleaning jobs, just on the off chance the next CEO of Tesco is having a bad day at work and wants to casually browse alternative roles?!

... I would like a law which says every job must be advertised, and in a single database

But you haven't explained why, what efficiencies does it bring for the costs it would incur, and who pays for the costs?

Apart from anything else this seems like it would be a gigantic waste of government time and resources.

@Lactarius I understood the point you were making.

Utterly, utterly ridiculous.

Who runs it?
Privatised or other?
Can they charge what they want to list an ad?
Can they charge people to view ads? Per search? Per application?
What if it fails or is cyber attacked?
What about non tech savvy small companies that are happy to advertise via other channels?
Would on database be ale to handle all required pieces of info for every possible type of job?
How do non tech savvy companies receive/review applicants?

I would like a law which says every job must be advertised, and in a single database.

This is what happens in France. The French job centre is for everyone.
They have a different areas for 'cadre's who are generally professionals and 'non cadre's
Each job has a code and all jobs must go through them.

Although in reality, in the area I was working in, many jobs were given through word of mouth and never advertised. But the job centre people were in contact with different agencies and helped when I first arrived.

You also get 70% of your old salary for two years when you go on job seekers allowance. It's not seen as something for those at the bottom of the job hunting pile.

I agree, at least to some extent, op. They could use the network of local job centres to maintain links with local employers, check what skills are needed for each job, and match them to local jobseekers too. Each local centre could at the least maintain subscriptions into every job advertising agency or system out there, including local newspapers and other local sources, and ensure that the jobs they are advertising are up to date and actually exist. Like job centres used to do.

I would like a law which says every job must be advertised, and in a single database.

The more I think about this, the more ridiculous it is..!

So if I need a new cleaner, I can’t ask my street whatsapp group for recommendations, I have to pay the government to post an ad?

And if the village pub needs some extra staff, they can’t put a notice up in the window, they have to pay the government to post an ad

And if someone in my team has been doing an amazing job and I want to promote her to keep her, I can’t just write a new job spec and offer her a promotion and pay rise, I have to pay the government to post an ad and then accept applications when I already have the perfect person lined up

And when I need someone but the government website is down for maintenance for a couple of days, I just have to suck up that it slows down by recruiting

And all this so some lazy job hunters don’t have to look at more than one job website?!

Genuinely one of the most stupid ideas I've read on here. And what is after that, OP? One site for all shops to list groceries? Or hotel rooms?

It wouldn't work for a lot of jobs/companies.

As an employer, we don't want to advertise certain jobs openly, because they reveal things about the company - we're changing systems or planning to go public, taking on a new technology etc. So we use an exec search agency to find the right staff without publicity. We wouldn't use a public job site.

Even the gov.uk website can be spammed with fake jobs.

Avon, customer research and door to door self employed sales jobs are often listed over and over again.

Whatever system there is, there's someone who will take advantage of it.

[quote SoniaFouler]@Lactarius I understood the point you were making.[/quote]
I understood the point they were making, I was pointing out they did it in an appalling way.

Trying and failing to get a job in care here. Honestly I'm not awful, I have some experience I maybe don't have amazing availability but. I might as well be an axe weilding alcoholic.
I'm sceptical that all these vacancies are real.

Companies pay recruitment consultants a lot of money - presumably because major job boards (indeed, adzuna) etc don’t work in getting quality candidates.
What field are you in?

Where I live (in a country in the EU, but not in France like @BloomingTrees) this actually also exists.

The equivalent of the jobcentre/employment service manages a database that actively searches all of the commercial job sites and the local news media sites and consolidates the vacancies on one site.

The employer can choose to pay to advertise on a commercial site, or a specialised site for, say, accountants, but the ad will also be published free of charge on the "Jobcentre" site. Employers can also directly advertise on this site - free of charge.

The important thing is that it is not mandatory here - so those wanting to stick a sign in the window or use Facebook can still do so. Those wanting to use an agency/executive search co. can still do so (but the ads will be picked up and will appear on the centralised website).

What is mandatory (for all job ads here) is that the minimum salary has to be published with the ad - although employers can indicate that they might pay more for the right candidate (and often pay significantly more).

@ChateauxNeufDePoop

As in my post above, this "Jobcentre" service already exists where I live in the EU and also in France (and I suspect in other countries too). It is not mandatory where I live, but is a service for citizens - who after all are the "customers" of the Employment Service, as are the tax-paying companies.

Who runs it? - The Employment Service
Privatised or other? - It is run by a government dept.
Can they charge what they want to list an ad? - No, it's a free service to employers - but it also harvests ads from commercial job sites and local media
Can they charge people to view ads? Per search? Per application? - No, it's free for the users, and has a very flexible search function for users.
What if it fails or is cyber attacked? - What is the issue? It is just a listings site. No personal user information is stored and the applicants apply directly to the companies.
What about non tech savvy small companies that are happy to advertise via other channels? - Their ad gets automatically picked up by the service's search engine; or they can place the ad directly with the service over the phone or in person (we still do that here).
Would on database be able to handle all required pieces of info for every possible type of job? - It is just a listings site. It is "dumb" i.e. it only handles the information that the advertiser provides it with (although there is an admin team in the background that makes sure that the info is genuine, complete and legal)
How do non tech savvy companies receive/review applicants? - The same way as they receive/review any other applications - by post, email, phone call, or the candidate just walks in. The database does not handle the application.

Indeed is pretty comprehensive, they also seem to filter out fake job ads pretty well, I'd recommend anyone job hunting use that site as their first port of call.

@Havanananana are all the jobs in the entire country in there though? The OP wants it to be the law that all job adverts for the entire country have to be in one database - thats a bit different to ads getting automatically picked up - which I agree would be a useful feature, but the Op wants it to be illegal for all job adverts to not be in one database i.e. available else where and added to the database using algorithms etc

@catsandhens

It is impossible to know if all of the jobs on on the "Jobcentre" website where I live, but in principle all jobs advertised on any websites (the equivalent of Indeed, Jobsite, Reed, local media etc) throughout the country will automatically appear on the centralised site. The service is not mandatory.

The advantages to job seekers are that they can see a very comprehensive overview of what jobs are available, and because ads have to include salaries, they can see what the going rate is. The site is searchable by location (City, Region), by job title (cleaner, driver, accountant, doctor etc) and by key words ("English", "Degree" etc) or by any combination - just like the commercial sites. Technically this is not a difficult thing to do.

The advantages to the companies are that they can save on advertising costs - the service is free and they can advertise directly - and they can cut out agencies (the Employment Service will handle and screen applications if the company asks them to). The basic principle is that employment services are a something that the citizens and employers can use a government agency for, rather than the service being commercialised as in the UK.

(The OP actually makes two suggestions. In the original post, she suggested that such a centralised site would be a useful idea. Only in a subsequent post does she state that she thinks that it should be mandatory.)

In France it's free for employers to advertise.
I assume they fill out an online form. Or phone up.

When you go for your interview at the job centre, they work out the code for the job you are looking for and they'll print out all relevant jobs for you to contact yourself. They don't check if you actually apply.
They'll also give you contact details for agencies in your field who can offer more temp. work.
They don't set targets for the number of applications you have to make. You just need to be actively searching ( but I think the controls for this are limited).
It's all paid for with taxes. The French love their 'chômage' unemployment benefit.
There is no stigma to getting it either.

There is also a scheme where you can get all your unemployment money in one go to start a business. So a few thousand normally.

I think the problem in the UK is that the Job Centre, which everyone is funding through their taxes, is seen as just being for low paid menial jobs and for handing out sanctions.