Dutch unemployment website "inadequate"

The website of the Dutch unemployment agency, the UWV, is beset by major problems, RTL Nieuws reports on the basis of its own inquiries.

In part, the problems are technical, the news website says. Users get inexplicable error messages, the site is down quite often and the website doesn’t work well with the most widely used web browser, Internet Explorer.

But the employment site also fails to link job vacancies to those looking for work in an adequate way, according to RTL Nieuws. Quite often people receive vacancies that don’t match the CV they posted. A social worker was offered a job as a welder, RTL reports, and a cashier was advised to apply for a post as an insurance expert.

Information systems professor Paul de Bra of TU Eindhoven says the website is “entirely inadequate” as a tool to find work. UWV has recognised there are problems with its site but says a new and better system will come online in November.

The website is becoming increasingly important as government budget cuts have led to mass redundancies at UWV itself and the closure of many of its offices.

(cl/tt)

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