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WV Forward posting jobs portal

MORGANTOWN — As thousands of jobs remain unfilled across West Virginia, WV Forward is posting a jobs portal that serves as a front door to statewide job platforms and listings, according to a press release.

At a time when employers and government officials express the need to better connect jobs to people and people to jobs, this landing page not only helps job seekers search for employment opportunities more easily, but it also helps attract and retain talent, increase workforce participation and spur job growth, the release states.

WV Forward is a statewide collaboration led by West Virginia University, the West Virginia Department of Commerce and Marshall University to help grow the economy by adding jobs, investing in education and improving health and wellness to create the most prosperous West Virginia possible, the organization said.

View the WV Jobs site at https://wvforward.wvu.edu/wv-jobs.

“Making sure West Virginia can attract and retain the best and brightest is one of the top ways to expand our talent pool and fill job openings, driving long-term economic prosperity,” said Rochelle Goodwin, WV Forward member and WVU’s senior associate vice president for academic and public strategy. “Hopefully, this simple landing page will make the job search process just a little easier.”

While thousands of graduates are hanging up their caps and gowns and looking to start their careers, the portal also factors in as an opportune tool to help young professionals educated in West Virginia find jobs in West Virginia while drawing in new talent from across the world.

“I’m very excited about the launch of the WV Jobs page on the WV Forward website. There are a surprising number of unfilled jobs in West Virginia, and this new resource will help to close the gap between job seekers and employers,” said Travis Kahle, director of the Center for Career Development at the University of Charleston and collaborator in WV Forward’s Talent Pipeline Professionals group. “Too many of our talented young West Virginians leave the state in search of job opportunities when there are plenty of great jobs right here in the Mountain State. The WV Jobs page will not only help us keep our own young professionals, but also attract recent graduates and young professionals from other states. The future is very bright for West Virginia, and we need to retain and attract as many young graduates as possible to take advantage of all the great opportunities our state has to offer.”

As the IT, cyber and health care sectors continue to grow in West Virginia, the WV Forward Blueprint has identified the importance to utilize West Virginia’s existing assets and structural advantages to grow these industries, make the state an attractive destination for talent and business development alike and fill job positions currently available, officials said.

“Never has the state had a greater need for economic diversification than it does now. This is especially true in regards to the development of a knowledge sector,” said Jim Estep, president of the High Technology Foundation and WV Forward collaborator. “The good news is that progress is being made in creating jobs in technology fields such as software development and cybersecurity. However, we will never realize the full potential of this progress if we can’t fill these jobs with quality people in a timely manner. In this regard, it is not an overstatement that the deployment of this WV Jobs page is of critical importance to West Virginia’s future. Moreover, it must be a priority of the state to fund the wide-spread marketing of the site around the country.”

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