THUNDER BAY - Several community organizations are hoping to make finding a job in Northwestern Ontario less of a job.
On Monday, the Local Employment Planning Council launched a new website that will serve as a job search engine for the districts of Thunder Bay, Kenora, and Rainy River.
“I think primarily it’s a one stop shop,” said Madge Richardson, executive director of the Local Employment Planning Council. “If someone is interested in Northwestern Ontario, the lifestyle, the quality of life, and also some of the jobs like resource sector jobs or right down to sales and service. There is a full variety and a diverse spectrum of jobs.”
The website, jobsearch.nswpb.ca, was a collaborative effort between the Local Employment Planning Council, the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission, the Thunder Bay Multicultural Association, and MovetoNWOntario.ca and funded by FedNor.
The website works by pulling job postings from all across the internet, including online job websites and company pages.
“It is a compilation of all those other job sites,” Richardson said. “If you want to live in Northwestern Ontario, you only have visit this one site instead of vesting all the others to find jobs.”
“It’s so much easier for a job seeker to be able to go onto one site and be able to see all the job opportunities,” Richardson continued. “Presently there are just over 1,100 of them.”
Cathy Woodbeck, executive director of the Thunder Bay Multicultural Association, said the new job search engine will be a great tool for newcomers arriving in the region.
Woodbeck added that while most people relocating to the region already have employment, the site will serve spouses, family members, and others who may not yet have a job.
“For refugees who land here without the planning ahead of time, it’s a great thing for them to use to find what is available in a field they may have worked in already,” Woodbeck said.
But the website will also offer something that other job sites do not, which Woodbeck said is a vital feature for those searching for a job, especially when something like language can be a barrier.
“We wanted a search engine where you could put in a word or two or past experience that would do some aggregating and grab all those jobs with those key words,” she said. “Newcomers may call their position something a little bit different, but if they put in their experience, some of the things they have done in the job, it will pull the job even if the job title is not something they would have thought it was.”
According to Richardson, Northwestern Ontario needs more skilled workers to fight back against a declining population and she hopes this new tool will make it easier for people to search for a job here, find a job here, and relocate here.
“Based on the population and the dynamics and demographics within, we will require people to move here and that is on top of everyone here actively working and participating in the workforce, it’s not to replace people from here, it’s actually to add to the workforce and to allow us to grow our economy and especially sustain it,” she said.
