Jobseeker website relaunch to happen soon as global job portal

Jobseeker founders vow to bring a "bigger and better" website that gives "access to more jobs globally".

Popular job-matching site Jobseeker has officially been confirmed to resume operations before the year ends. The website had been shut down following the complaint of another online job portal for "using data from its website" without their consent.

Founders of Jobseeker, which is operated by big data analytics startup JobTech, have announced that the platform's closure is only fleeting as the team is gearing up for its relaunch that is expected to take place in December. Wee Tiong and Charlotte Lim have revealed that they are preparing for a "bigger and better" Jobseeker.

Also read: Gig economy spurs hope amid weakening job market in Singapore

Tiong and Lim promise users to "have access to more jobs globally". JobTech will be hauling the career pages of more than 500 international firms into its databank, which will spur them to analyse over one million job listings every day from around the world, a huge leap from thousands of local job postings before.

"The new site will be bigger and better because it will offer more jobs from additional online public data sources. Since the shutdown, we have added the individual career pages of more than 500 global companies to our data source."

Before the shutdown, Jobseeker had around 5,000 users, of which 90 percent are professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs).

In response to the allegation that the site operates illegally, Lim and Tiong have denied the claim, stressing that JobTech does not benefit from it financially.

"We do not believe that reading public pages or pointing back to those said pages is illegal," reads the statement. "In addition, our site credits all job listings to the portals and refers visitors directly to them. The jobseeker site is also offered at no cost, with no financial gain or benefit to JobTech."

The founders have further stated that JobTech's "corporate social responsibility to help PMETs find jobs" has been the driving force to run the Jobseeker website at no cost from both the job hunters and companies.

Lim and Wong have quoted JobTech chairman Philip Yeo that "the PMET group is highly vulnerable to job displacement".

"We now have almost 20,000 Singaporeans who are long term unemployed," states Yeo. "It is most regrettable that parties would block access to data which could be useful in helping PMETs get back to work, to make a meaningful income to support their families during this difficult time."

Jobseeker supposedly turns one in November.

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