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The Employment Exchange

Registering with the employment exchange

 

A (highly) imperfect way to find a job

Priyanka Bidaye, seek an actress who starred in the Konkani films Aalisha and Saavariya, salve received a call letter from the State Employment Exchange asking her to come for an interview for the post of industrial security guard in the state industries department. Ms. Bidaye, a post-graduate from Goa University, had registered with the Exchange in 2007.   Even if she weren’t happily employed as a successful actress, it’s safe to say she would not be looking for a job toting rifles at a factory!

And yet this is the kind of incident that appears to happen quite often at the employment exchange, which has a long way to go before it can fulfill its mission of providing jobs to the jobless.

Here’s how it works.

Banks, public sector companies and various departments register with the Employment Exchange to get a good choice of candidates. The exchange, which falls under the Department of Labour and Employment, functions as an interface between employers and jobseekers. It proposes a list of potential candidates to employers seeking to fill vacant positions.

Sunil Gaonkar, the employment officer at Panjim, says: “We give the employers a list of suitable candidates who have registered at our employment exchange as well as place an advertisement for the required post in the newspaper. The employers then choose the candidates and send call letters to suitable candidates. We try and see that candidates registered with us are given jobs in the private as well as the public sector.”

More than one lakh Goans are currently jobless, or around 7 percent of the work force, one of the highest rates in India and well above this year’s expected national figure of 3.8 percent. Only a very small portion of  Goa’s jobless get placed through the employment exchange, unfortunately. Gaonkar pointed to a number of imperfections in the system, including outdated information.

 “We give the database and suitable candidates’ list to the employers having vacant posts in their companies. The actual selection lies in their hands”, he said.

“The reason people get jobs in inappropriate fields is because of misinformation provided. For example, at times candidates register with us when they have completed their S.S.C. Subsequently they don’t come back to add the degrees or additional courses they have done.”

What exactly is being done to address the problem of unemployed Goan youth? “Many proposals have been sent. They are yet to be finalized.”

Alka Mardolkar, Statistical Assistant at the Panjim Regional Employment Exchange said, “Between January – December 2012,  26,322 candidates registered. We submitted 29,619 candidates as reference for the 3,584 vacancies that arose. 1,833 candidates got placed.”

It shows that in seven years, 11,406 of the 1,46,066 candidates registered got permanent placement.

Here’s what you have to do to register with the employment exchange:

Get a residential certificate (proof that you are staying in a particular locality for an extended period, issued by the Mamlatdar of the Taluka).

Get all original certificates proving your educational qualifications.

Fill the employment exchange registration form (available at all the regional employment exchange offices and submit it along with the relevant documents mentioned above).

After confirming your credentials, the regional employment exchange office will give you a registration number and the process is complete.

Whenever you want to update your records, report to the same registration section on any working day.

The registration is valid for a fixed time. It has to be renewed. If you fail to renew your registration in due time, you can apply for renewal within two months. After that it lapses.

employment table

Goa’s Labour and Employment Minister, Avertano Furtado said in the Assembly: “… there are  1,04,789 unemployed persons registered with the state Employment Exchange; 58,226 males and 46,563 females. The problem of unemployment is being tackled at various levels. The government has taken various initiatives: promotion of new industries, giving a boost to tourism, ensuring that locals get priority in employment and providing training to unemployed persons under the Minimum Employment Assurance Scheme.”

    Considering incidents like the one involving actress Priyanka Bidaye, perhaps the Personnel Department of the State Government needs to figure out who isn’t doing their job, and maybe have them join the growing ranks of the unemployed!