New Web site adds market place for jobs
COLUMBIA BASIN - Potential employees looking for work in Central Washington just got a new Web site to aid them in their search.
The Web site Centralwashingtonjobs.com, at www.centralwashingtonjobs.com, recently went online after months of work by the local recruitment group, the Operations Task Force, and Grant County Economic Development Council Manager of Communications and Research Jon Smith.
Smith said the council contracted with Wenatchee-based company Adonai Media for creation of the site, which was finalized in late February. The idea began in June 2007, he estimated.
"The purpose of the Web site is the people who are looking for jobs in the Central Washington area, and it targets that specific market," Smith said. "The long-term purpose of it is it will serve as a Web site where anyone looking for a job or information related to employment in the Central Washington area, they can go to that one place and find the information they're looking for, whether it's available jobs, information about the community they're interested in."
The Web site search engine uses Moses Lake as its epicenter, Smith said, and covers a range of 75 miles outside Moses Lake, which includes Wenatchee, Ellensburg, the Tri-Cities and Yakima.
"If we have someone from outside the area, they're looking around and saying, 'I wonder what jobs are in Central Washington,' it's that area," Smith said.
The site is designed to help job searchers, but the benefit to employers is that their job postings are now listed in another place, Smith said.
"If people are interested in the Central Washington area, the jobs are centered there," he explained. "They don't have to dig through thousands and thousands of jobs from Florida and Alabama. It's just this area. The benefit to employers is when people are looking at that area, they're going to be more prominently displayed than they would be on those bigger search engines."
Currently, the site is displaying about 2,645 jobs. The search can be narrowed by entering various terms to search within a region or to narrow down jobs to a specific field.
The Web site also allows for job posting. Smith said council members with 350 employees or less can post jobs for free through Omaha, Neb.-based, non-profit Web company CareerLink, which handles the posting of jobs.
"An EDC member that has 10 employees probably doesn't have a huge budget for posting available jobs," Smith said. "This allows businesses like that to be able to post, and their job will show up on the site in three different places."
The job shows up when a person uses the search bar, when someone types in the employer name or when a user searches by city.
Non-council members have to contact CareerLink or Smith at 509-764-6579. Users can post their resume to the Web site as well.
Smith said the council wants to help existing businesses and businesses coming into the area to ensure there's a marketplace for employers and employees to meet.
"The more marketplaces there are, the better chances people have of connecting," he said.
The council hopes members use the Web site, and plans to market the site in the area and outside the area, driving traffic to the Web site and including information and videos about the area on the Web site.
As task force members market the area, they will direct people to the site.
Smith estimated about 5,000 jobs will come into the area in the next five years.
"More and more people my age and younger, they choose where they want to live," Smith said. "The trend is going more, you pick a place where you want to live and find employment there. This Web site is designed for those people who pick Central Washington."