Despite government denials, the online job banks is littered with old job listings, which are distracting job seekers from real opportunities.
Employment Minister Jason Kenney denies there are job postings older than 60 days on the federal governments job bank site, despite listings dated more than a year ago.
"The typical maximum posting period is 30 days," Kenney said this week in the House of Commons. "We only extend it beyond that if employers ask for an extension for up to six months maximum, after which the postings expire."
However, the expired listings remain on the job bank, and are included in the total count of counted as part of the total number of openings currently being advertised on the site.
A search for “human resources” on the site finds 703 listings, but included in the first page of “best match” results are listings from December 2013, as well as January and February this year. Organizations looking for skilled candidates need to have the right key words to appear in the first page of results, but are competing against job listings that have long expired.
For HR professionals looking for new opportunities, filtering by “date posted” will ensure they see the most recent results, but could also mean less relevant listings appear near the top of the list.
Are you an HR professional looking for an opportunity? Here is a list of the best websites for HR job postings in Canada.
The site data is used by the government to track high-demand regions and as a tool for people on employment insurance. It also plays a critical role in the temporary foreign workers program, with employers being required to post ads for Canadian workers for four weeks before they can apply to hire foreign workers.
A spokesman for Employment and Social Development Canada said last week that it's up to employers to remove the postings after they've been filled.
