Federal job bank closure frustrates business owners

The federal government's Service Canada Job Bank is closed, frustrating businesses owners looking to fill vacant positions.

The website is the country's largest resource for people looking for work. It posts jobs available across the country and provides information about how to apply.

The site says the service is "temporarily unavailable due to technical difficulties," leaving business owners like Grant Taylor of Summerland, B.C., stalled in their search for workers.

Taylor said his company has been trying to post a job for a receptionist since Feb. 17.

"We've been unable to do it. The government site is still down."

Taylor contacted Service Canada and was told technicians were working around the clock to fix the problem.

"We've thought for a week that they were going to come back online any day," said Taylor.

But the site is still down, leaving Taylor to wonder how many potential job matches across the country have been lost.

"Basically, everybody uses the job bank," he said.

Job bank closure strands employers, unemployed

Taylor said it's unacceptable the government can't match up employers with job seekers when so many Canadians are without work.

"It's not exactly what I want to see out of the government. Not being able to reach them on something as important as the number of people out there looking for work."

The closure has also frustrated the unemployed, who say they're now reluctantly turning to privately run job banks.

Diane Finley, the minister of human resources and skills development, addressed the problem in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, there was a security issue with the job bank," Finley said. "It was identified and all the appropriate parties were notified, including the privacy commissioner."

A department spokesperson said the security upgrades are taking longer than expected, and Finley said officials are working non-stop to get the job bank up and running again as soon as possible.