Govt’s bid to provide employment via MSME jobs portal fails to take off

A jobs portal — billed by the government as a speedy way to get skilled youth employed by small businesses — has hit a persistent snag. There aren’t enough openings for job seekers.

At the time of this story going to print, there were a mere 65 job postings on MSME Sampark with only 923 open vacancies for the more than 460,000 trained youth registered on the portal.

The ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) has begun an investigation into why placements through the portal have not picked up, sources said.

Launched by President Ram Nath Kovind in June 2018, the portal was expected to help bridge the skill gap as well as reduce unemployment. Students, who studied at the 18 MSME Technology Centres nationwide, were offered the choice of making themselves available to “various reputed national and multinational companies”, according to the government.