Google launches app-based job marketplace
Kormo, an experimental job marketplace of Google, was officially launched in Bangladesh yesterday with the view of helping people in the informal sector, either unemployed or employed at low pay, find jobs.
Kormo, which means “work” in Bangla, is a jobs and careers app that connects jobseekers to businesses looking to hire alongside allowing jobseekers to create and maintain a digital curriculum vitae.
The initiative eyes the 86 percent of the country's labour force who are employed in the informal sector, said Bickey Russell, project lead of Kormo, while briefing reporters about the features and utilities of the app in Dhaka.
“This app will give a huge boost to the informal job sector and the whole ecosystem will be changed when it works full-fledged,” he said.
The android phone-based app allows jobseekers to open accounts and find jobs of their interest and will enable employers to post job ads on the platform, Russell added.
Some 1,000 employers have already posted vacancy notices for 21,000 jobs on the platform since the launch of Kormo more than a year ago.
Russell said the basic difference between the existing job marketplaces in Bangladesh and Kormo is that the former is focused on corporate jobs in the formal sector while the latter's focus is on the informal sector.
Kormo would enhance access, capacity and opportunity for the country's youth, especially the women, he said.
The app serves jobs in 35 categories in the service sector and the list would be expanded gradually, the Kormo Project lead said.
The app keeps the track records of employees. Kormo is currently catering to jobs in Dhaka only and plans to expand the coverage area gradually.
It has been developed under the Google's Area 120 programme, an incubator for new innovative ideas inside of the company. Brac, the world's largest non-governmental organisation, has become a technical partner of the programme.
Moutushi Kabir, director for communications and outreach of Brac International, said they were glad to partner with the Google's Area 120 incubator programme for a solution designed to improve the accessibility and transparency of the informal job sector in Bangladesh.
