Although I have not been told to register with the new Find A Job website I decided to do it anyway.  It appears to track how many times you do a jobsearch and of course the jobs you apply for.  It keeps a record of the pages you have looked at and the actual jobs you looked at.  When I registered on Monday with the website I used my mobile phone and when I pulled down the menu on the top right of my phone I noticed a blueish logo next to the word “share”.  This was the first time I had seen this and so I tried to delete it.  It was impossible to do without deleting all the files and cookies in google.  I also noticed on the website that it doesn’t allow you to copy and paste a CV onto the website and you have to upload a file instead.  You can’t even create a CV on the website but if you apply for a job it has a box with a message to the employer which you can alter like a cover letter.  You can’t upload any cover letters so the box is the alternative.  Today I copied a CV on my UJM page and pasted it onto a word document.  I then saved it on the library computer and uploaded it onto the Find A Job website.  

I’m still using my UJM page to record my activity and also it still appears to have new jobs advertised.  Of course many are fake but it does appear to have a few genuine ones to apply for.  I also noticed on the new site that you can’t make any comments regarding your job efforts.  That means any jobs you apply for from other sites can’t be recorded.  It might mean that any jobseekers still on JSA that have not yet signed up to Universal Credit might have to go back to recording job seeking activity using pen and paper.  On Monday morning when I first used the new website it had 41 jobs in my locality of which 39 were from just two employers, Eteach and the Stonegate Pub Company.  How long before we see the old familiar names advertising page after page of job vacancies?  Hopefully it won’t turn into that but it might show the government how few genuine jobs are really out there.  This new website might be better at tracking jobsearch activity than the old UJM website. 

Every time I go to the jobcentre I always hear mentioned “volunteering”. It’s only a matter of time before everyone unemployed will be forced to volunteer to receive benefits.  I hope it is still a long way off but it’s inevitable.  An increase in the minimum wage and more people doing compulsory volunteering and costing the employer a lot less.

I will report back on hear of any courses or volunteering I’m forced to do.