A new Australian job listing site aimed at young people claims no job hunters will be ghosted, with the chief executive guaranteeing everyone will get feedback on every unsuccessful application.
The platform was launched as youth unemployment ticks up again, rising 0.3 percentage points to 11.1 per cent in September, outpacing the general population which posted a 0.1 point rise to 4.7 per cent.
The new youth jobs platform is called Knack, and is designed so people can find jobs they did not know were out there.
“Ghosting is one of the most demoralising parts of looking for your first job, so on Knack nobody gets left without an answer,” founder Gemma Lloyd exclusively tells NewsWire.
“Looking for your first job is hard enough without sending application after application into a black hole.
The company is promising applicants will see exactly when their application has been viewed, short-listed and then whether they’ve advanced to an interview.
“Every fortnight we check in with each young person about the roles they’ve applied for,” Ms Lloyd said.
“If they didn’t get the job, or never heard back, we ask if they want feedback and then provide them with three or four specific, practical things they can do to strengthen their next application, based on their CV and that exact role.
“We still push employers to give feedback themselves but we’re not going to make a young person’s progress depend on whether an employer replies.”
Knack has been spun out of Ms Lloyd’s women-focused jobs site Work180, which posts companies’ gender page gap, leave entitlement, flexibility, and support offerings.
Knack went live on August 24, and the company began widespread promotion by October 1. By then, 5000 young people had signed up.
The platform aims to give more information than others about the specific requirements of different jobs, whether they be physical work, exposure to the elements, or dedicated and included training courses.
About 200 NBN customer field technician roles were among the first large batches of jobs posted.
“How many school leavers would open a jobs website and type ‘customer field technician’ into the search bar?,” Ms Lloyd said.
“There are great careers available that young people simply don’t know exist. At the same time, we have employers looking for workers and young Australians looking for jobs. We need to make it much easier for those two groups to find each other.”
The latest official employment figures were released Thursday, and showed youth unemployment running at more than double the general rate, and rising three-times as much in the month of September.
The current youth unemployment rate of 11.1 per cent runs below the long-term average of 12.96 per cent.
Youth unemployment peaked at 20.1 per cent in October 1992, and the record low was in July 2022 at 7.1 per cent.
The official figures are defined as 15-24 year olds who are unemployed and actively seeking work.