What’s the point of so many enhancements to the national jobs bank?

I refer to the article “New jobs portal uses technology to better match jobseekers and employers” (Straits Times, Apr 17).

It states that “A high-tech national jobs portal was launched on Tuesday (April 17) to better match local jobseekers with employers.

It can prioritise search results according to the relevance of a jobseeker’s skills, and filter results to show those under government schemes to support training, among other key features.

To calculate the relevance of jobseekers’ skills, which is displayed as a percentage from zero to 100, the system uses machine learning to analyse job descriptions and identify the skills needed.

It then compares these with skills that the jobseeker has indicated.”

As to “So far, more than 300,000 jobseekers and about 30,000 employers have registered on Jobs Bank. A WSG spokesman said the agency does not have full data on successful placements through Jobs Bank as not all employers update the portal with the job application status” – what’s the point of all these enhancements to the jobs portal when the statistics of the most important outcome – how many of the jobs went to Singaporeans is not available?

For example, how many of the 300,000 jobseekers found jobs and how many of the 30,000 employers actually employed Singaporeans at the end of the day.

If it can be mandated that employers must post on the jobs bank – why can’t they be also required to update the “job application status” of “successful placements through Jobs Bank”?

I hate to say this – is it arguably, not somewhat like “wayang”?

Leong Sze Hian