PETALING JAYA: A RM24.5 million investment to revamp JobsMalaysia – a government portal to help Malaysians seeking employment – has come to nought.
The completion of the revamp had been delayed by two years, and when it was finally launched, it failed to meet expectations.
The contract to revamp JobsMalaysia was given to Mimos Bhd in 2015 and it was supposed to be ready a year later.
However, according to Human Resources Ministry source, Mimos was unable to deliver the project as promised in 2016.
The portal, first conceived and launched in 2009, provided lists of available jobs for those seeking employment.
In 2015, a decision was made to enhance the capabilities of the portal to enable it to match jobs with job seekers’ skills.
When it was finally launched in September 2018, it received positive reviews. But technical problems arose soon after on both the web and app versions, resulting in a flood of complaints.
Many described it as “not user friendly” or that jobs were not accurately matched with a job seeker’s skills or qualifications.
For instance, a person with a degree in engineering could end up with a job suggestion for a lorry driver’s position.
“It could hardly deliver and the job-matching algorithm has to be one of the worst in the market,“ the source said.
Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran has also raised questions about JobMalaysia’s failure to deliver on its promise despite the high cost incurred.
Users have given it a rating of 2.3 out of five. Many who tried the app on the Android platform have complained about not being able to log in despite days of trying.
Several others complained about having to register several times or being unable to register at all.
One user, Athirah Noor, said it functioned well right after installation on her phone but went “dysfunctional” hours later.
Kulasegaran has also brought the issue up with the Labour Department. He now wants “more capable hands” to take over JobsMalaysia.
The objective is to implement the latest technology and algorithms to enhance its job matching capabilities to match portals such as JobStreet at no extra cost.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation has forged a partnership with SlingApp under their eRezeki programme, to targets more than one million job matches across 10 industries for young job seekers by the end of 2019.
