Vicinity Jobs Network Launched to Help Suburban Residents to Avoid Long-Distance Commuting

Toronto, Canada, November 01, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Finding a job close to home just became easier for the millions of residents of Oshawa, Pickering, Mississauga, Brampton, Markham, and other towns surrounding Toronto. The Vicinity Jobs Network (http://www.VicinityJobs.com) – an online initiative launched earlier this month – aims at helping residents of GTA’s 905 communities to avoid long-distance commuting. The Vicinity Jobs Network was built and is operated by IT-Challenger Consulting Group - the Newmarket, Ontario based search technologies provider and integrator.

Vicinity Jobs is a network of four vertical job search engines that utilize IT-Challenger's proprietary vertical search technology platform. Each Vicinity Jobs search engine serves one of the four suburban regions around Toronto -- Durham, Halton, Peel, and York -- and gives residents in its region free access to thousands of job openings in their neighborhoods. Job seekers can browse through job openings by community, job type, or simply search for specific keywords. Since the Vicinity Jobs web sites operate as specialized Internet search engines, most of the jobs found through them are actually published on other web sites that the Vicinity Jobs network monitors regularly.

However, employers and recruiters interested in recruiting locally, can post local jobs directly on their local Vicinity Jobs web site, and promote their brands, receive and review applications submitted through an integrated resume submission service, and measure the performance of each posting. By providing these services for free or below market rates, the Vicinity Jobs Network gives employers an incentive to recruit locally. Strict job posting eligibility criteria are in place, however, to avoid fraud and ensure the quality of the services provided to job seekers: Vicinity Jobs web sites only accept postings for paid employment positions that are physically located in the geographic area served by the Vicinity Jobs web site to which the posting has been submitted.

The concept is not really new: Residents of York Region already know Fairy Lake Jobs – the community job search engine launched in October 2006 to serve York Region. Fairy Lake Jobs is now a member of the Vicinity Jobs network. Fairy Lake Jobs has enjoyed a phenomenal success since its launch. It now attracts thousands of visitors and forwards dozens of job applications each week. Fairy Lake Jobs has also established successful partnerships with important local employment service providers, including the Newmarket Employment Resource Centre and the YorkYouth and Discover employment initiatives run by the York Region District School Board.

The Vicinity Jobs network also serves as a hub for distributing community news. An index of links to recent community and employment-related news articles published on governmental and non-profit web sites is displayed in a dedicated news section. Businesses and residents of the local communities can also submit their own news articles for publishing directly with the Vicinity Jobs network.

The Vicinity Jobs network’s focus on avoiding long-distance commuting aims to highlight a unique aspect of all recruiting decisions: Long-distance commuting not only reduces overall productivity, it is also a significant cause of pollution. The cost of building and maintaining the infrastructure required to support mass commuting has been a major concern for all municipalities in the Great Toronto Area for years. The Vicinity Jobs Network introduces an unorthodox approach that shows how information technologies can help dealing with these problems without introducing significant expenses or economic productivity losses.

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