The Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development has launched a new mobile app offering Missourians seeking employment a new medium to search for jobs and connect with employers.

Dr. Mardy Leathers, director of the Office of Workforce Development said the MoJobs Connect mobile app currently has over 120,000 active job postings across multiple industries for Missourians seeking employment.

Leathers said the idea behind the app was to take all the services offered at a Missouri job center and make them more digitally accessible.

“This app allows you to access all this on your phone and what you’re able to do is to create a resume, to upload and post a resume, create a user profile, to search jobs. Anyone who downloads the app and creates a profile in the app will be able to see all those jobs, they can filter by industry, location, they can apply directly for those jobs. You can access some resources and videos,” said Leathers.

After making an account, users automatically qualify for the Coursera framework, which offers over 7,000 different certifications job seekers can receive to better develop their resumes.

“The account you create also becomes available to the employers that have access that has posted those jobs so then they can then reach out to you and they can begin to also match on their sides. So, the matching happens on both sides,” Leathers said. “We think that’s a pretty awesome opportunity for Missourians who are seeking work to see what jobs are posted, to see the qualifications required, and then to connect with the employers who are posting these jobs”

The unemployment rate in Missouri is currently 3.8% and the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development believes this app can play a role in lowering unemployment by closing in on the gap between job seekers and employers.

“We have a market that’s not matched. We call it frictional unemployment, meaning the two sides aren’t connecting. And so what we have to do is try to smooth out that friction and try and close some of those gaps and we think the app is one way to leverage a labor exchange to create kind of that virtual marketplace where job seekers can see opportunity, employers can post opportunity and we can hopefully make a match,” Leathers said.

Leathers said that at its core, the MoJobs Connect app’s purpose is to create a simple tool connecting employers and job seekers here in Missouri.

Learn more about the MoJobs Connect app.