Empowering Job Seekers with Customized Support

PROJECT CAPSULE

The New Jersey Career Network (NJCN) is a free online platform designed to take the best of in-person job search support and deliver it online and on-demand, providing manageable, sequential and tailored tasks to steer job seekers undertaking the arduous process of searching and applying for meaningful work. Designed to be flexible and responsive, the site will continue to evolve as human-centered design and development needs are uncovered, and is intentionally built in such a way that those iterations are easily accommodated.

PROJECT STATUS

The website is in beta and a work in progress. Users are welcome to sign-up on the website and use the tool. Although it is designed for New Jersey residents, there is no residency requirement for use. The NJCN complements the services offered on the State of New Jersey COVID-19 Jobs and Hiring Portal and the COVID-19 Information Hub. Feedback continues to be collected at team@njcareers.org.

CHALLENGE NJCN ADDRESSES

Finding a job is a significant challenge for many people experiencing unemployment. Job seekers don’t lack access to online information; rather, they often find the amount of information—and identifying a personalized path through it—overwhelming. In-person support has proven successful in helping job seekers navigate the terrain; however, it is not a scalable solution. Chronically underfunded public workforce agencies lack sufficient resources to handle demand and pandemic-driven economic uncertainty has exacerbated the situation.

KEY FEATURES

• The NJCN is a web application that improves how job seekers find and use information in their job search.
• Diagnostic questions based on research develop customized profiles for job seekers and deliver recommended activities to guide individual job searches.
• Creates tips and milestones to measure progress on how to find job opportunities, how to stand out in today’s crowded job market, and how to stay healthy and motivated.
• The NJCN provides prompts to increase motivation and influence behaviors to advance job seeking progress. Users can access practice material to conduct more effective job searches.

BROADER IMPACT

Improved delivery of benefits to job seekers will be a continued priority for the government as economies adapt and recover from the impact of the pandemic. The NJCN is freely available for other state and municipal governments to adopt for their constituents. Future interactions could include direct access to unemployment and other public benefits.

COLLABORATION

NJCN is a unique public-private partnership harnessing top expertise from academia, think tanks, and technology to offer a powerful new solution. Partners include: State of New Jersey Office of Innovation, Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, New Jersey State Department of Labor and Workforce Development, New Jersey Economic Development Authority, New America, Two Bulls, Lumina Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation.

NEXT STEPS

Exploring opportunities to scale to other jurisdictions. For more information, please contact DIGI@newamerica.org.

SOLUTION LINK | OPEN SOURCE CODE REPOSITORY

https://github.com/newjersey/career-network