HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Get on the Jobs Highway: Chancellor Gordon Brown and Employment Minister Andrew Smith Announces £18 Million to provide Job Matching Services on the Internet [September 1999]

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 6 September 1999.

Gordon Brown and Andrew Smith Announce £18 Million to provide Job Matching Services on the Internet

A new hi-tech £18 million scheme to link workers without jobs to jobs without workers has been announced today by the Chancellor Gordon Brown and Employment Minister Andrew Smith.

The new scheme will allow job seekers to browse the internet through terminals in Jobcentres, personal computers in homes, libraries, colleges and community centres as well as a ‘jobs’ channel on digital TV. The internet-based system will also list information on job seekers.

Announcing the scheme the Chancellor said:

“Since May 1997 over 400,000 jobs have been created and unemployment is now the lowest for 20 years. But the jobs market must work better.

“The next step is to improve the links between the jobs that need workers to the workers that need jobs. That is exactly what this new system aims to do. We are creating a jobs highway where job seekers will be able to see, at anytime and anywhere, what jobs are on offer.

“There can be no excuse for staying at home on benefit and not taking jobs on offer.”

David Blunkett, the Secretary of State for Education and Employment welcomed the new funding and said:

“This is excellent news. Modern IT facilities have a major role to play in backing up our drive to get people off welfare and into work. The new service is the shape of things to come, with easy access, tailored data provision and a two-way search process involving employers, as well as jobseekers.

The Employment Minister Andrew Smith said:

“Looking for work requires proper support from the Employment Service but also initiative on the part of those who are unemployed. Both of these will be made easier by the new on-line job-matching service.”

The benefits of the new system will be:

• for those seeking work, a jobs bank with a comprehensive list of current vacancies. It will also include links to non-Employment service websites to give widespread coverage;
• for employers, a CV bank containing data on those currently seeking work; and
• a search engine, which will allow job seekers to browse for jobs anytime and anywhere – not just in Jobcentres but also from personal computers at home, via a jobs channel on digital TV or at access points in colleges, libraries and community centres.

The new service is designed to enhance the effectiveness of the Welfare to Work initiative by expanding the choice available to young people and the long term unemployed who generally have less access to information on jobs available.

The £18 million investment has been provided through the Capital Modernisation Fund and will be delivered by the Employment Service. It will be used to develop the software for and delivery of an IT internet-based vacancy and CV service (£12 million) and to test different types of access equipment for clients to use (£6 million).