By Michael Ruparak/Associated PressAn ad campaign that began in January to recruit people to work at the Department of Labor’s hiring website has had an impact on hiring, according to a new report.
The Job Seekers’ Action Coalition says in a report released Monday that the ad campaign had the “potential to cause job loss” and have a “negative impact on employers’ ability to hire” workers, particularly in traditionally blue-collar occupations.
The coalition says it’s been successful in recruiting nearly 3,000 people to join the Department’s online hiring platform, which has been used by roughly 3.3 million Americans.
“We know that hiring people online is important, and the fact that the campaign is successful is a good indicator of the importance of hiring in the digital age,” said Matt Schulze, a spokesman for the Coalition.
Schulze said that although the campaign has had a negative impact on the number of people who have applied for jobs, the coalition is optimistic about the future of hiring.
“The coalition believes that if employers are willing to take action to reduce the number and diversity of applicants, they’ll find it’s a lot easier to recruit in the future,” he said.
Employers can sign up for the Job Seeker’s Action Coalition’s online recruitment platform, the Department says.
Schuler said the coalition hopes the report will help other employers “better understand the impact that the Job Searchers’ Campaign has had on the employment landscape and on the hiring process in general.”
The report, titled “The Job Searcher’s Campaign Is Killing Jobs,” was conducted by a coalition of organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and American Federation of Teachers.
It also looked at data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The report comes after a string of reports about the effects of job hunting apps and online recruiting platforms on hiring.
In July, the Labor Department announced that the number, composition and types of job openings it received for the first time in its nearly 50-year history were not being impacted by the job hunt apps.
The agency said the numbers reflected more than 1.2 million job openings in a broad range of industries, including retail, restaurants, transportation, health care, and education.
The Labor Department said job postings that did not include specific job titles were not affected by the app, and that the agency would continue to make efforts to keep job listings up to date.