With unemployment rates at all-time lows in San Diego, it’s no wonder employment agencies are getting creative in finding qualified workers.
Last week, Adecco, a Swiss-based employment firm that claims to be the world’s largest, rolled out an interactive kiosk called the Job Shop at the University Towne Centre shopping mall.
The machine allows job seekers to punch in their skills and background to see if the agency has an opening for them in the vicinity. If an applicant’s skills match an opening listed with the agency, they’re invited to come to the nearest branch to meet with a representative and conduct a final screening and testing before being sent out to an interview.
Bonnie Olmsted, an Adecco spokeswoman, said the company has some 130 Job Shops operating in 25 states, and thus far has successfully matched some 6,000 job seekers. The UTC kiosk is the first for this area, but more may follow, Olmsted said.
“As an employment company we have to be recruiting all the time, especially during this time when unemployment rates are at an all-time low,” she said.
“The Job Shops are a particularly good tool for outreach because it allows applicants to conduct their job search during nonbusiness hours when the employment offices aren’t open.”
Understandably, the majority of jobs contained in the Job Shop database are those with some of the highest turnover rates , office support jobs involving clerical, administrative and data entry skills , but there are also jobs in technical fields, Olmsted said.
Adecco, with 3,000 offices around the world, placed more than 2.5 million temporary employees last year. It has four offices in the San Diego area.
, Mike Allen
