State Readies Computer Job Match Service

State officials Monday announced plans for a new $18-million program designed to match jobs with job seekers throughout California.

Kaye R. Kiddoo, director of the Employment Development Department, the nation’s largest job broker, told a news conference that the new Job Match computer program will be able within minutes to direct applicants to appropriate jobs throughout the state.

No longer will job seekers have to trudge from field office to field office to find available positions in their line of work or make repeated visits to determine if new openings have been posted, he said.

At the same time, he said, it will make it easier for employers to find skilled workers to fill positions in their plants.

“This makes a statewide pool of applicants available to all employers,” Kiddoo said.

He said the program will be especially valuable in ghetto areas where there are usually hundreds of job applicants and often no job postings. Under the new system, he said, jobs in other parts of the city will become available to these job seekers.

Kiddoo said the development of the program took two years, including several months spent testing it in seven field offices in the East Bay area.

Officials estimate that the new program will be on-line in all of the department’s 134 field offices by early 1991.

They said all field offices in Los Angeles and Orange counties should be able to offer the service by the spring of 1990.