Job Match, a service that electronically matches qualified applicants with employers' job orders, became fully installed statewide last year and is now available through 140 California Employment Development Department (EDD) field offices. According to EDD, the new system gives employers and applicants "virtually instant access" to a statewide applicant pool and to job listings, respectively. Through computer-assisted file searches, EDD staff locate the best candidates for each job opening or refer applicants to the jobs most closely fitting their background, needs, and interests, drawing from a broader geographic area than was previously possible.
Employers can list seasonal, year-round, part-time, or full-time openings by phone or FAX to a local EDD office, providing information about the job, skills and experience needed, wage and hours, and the like. Job seekers can go to the nearest EDD field office or to certain other locations, such as welfare offices, to fill out a form giving occupation, experience, preferred work locations, work history, and wage desired. An employer's job order is compared with applicants listed in the system who have specified that occupation; those who best match the job requirements are selected for referral to the employer.
The Job Match program is still in its early stages, EDD points out, and it is difficult to assess its overall usefulness, particularly under current economic conditions. During the state fiscal year that ended June 30, 1992, the service made more than 44,000 referral and 24,400 placement transactions for agricultural jobs, both of which were slightly more than the previous year's transactions.
EDD offices in areas with high agricultural activity also have local Job Service specialists assigned to help agricultural employers and farm workers. Agricultural Business Representatives (ABRs) and Outreach Workers work jointly to match workers with employers, gather and report data on labor market conditions, and keep abreast of crop conditions and community resources useful to farmers and workers. ABRs solicit announcements of job openings and help farmers with labor needs and statistics; Outreach Workers assist other EDD staff in matching workers with those jobs, as well as in providing workers with information and referrals to services.
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