WO2010124334A1

WO2010124334A1 - System and method for providing computer-enabled employment search services

Info

Publication number: WO2010124334A1
Application number: PCT/AU2010/000493
Authority: WO
Inventors: Bryan Petereit
Original assignee: APPLY DIRECT Pty Ltd
Current assignee: APPLY DIRECT Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2009-05-01
Filing date: 2010-04-30
Publication date: 2010-11-04
Anticipated expiration: 2011-11-01

Abstract

A computerised employment search services system (10) and method (200) provides an Internet accessible job board of aggregated job vacancy listings taken directly from prospective employer's websites (50) and categorised according to predetermined rules (30). The system (10) enables searching for jobs by category and sub-category, which is highly desirable to job seekers but is not possible simply by aggregating job listings and relying on the employer's title for classification. Furthermore, the system (10) addresses the technical problem of automating the classification of jobs scraped from the websites of disparate employers by parsing job advertisement data into predetermined data fields, and applying stored job category rules (328), which are established based on relationships between employer organisations and contents of the data fields, in order to assign categories and sub-categories to scraped jobs.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING COMPUTER-ENABLED

EMPLOYMENT SEARCH SERVICES FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a system and method for providing computer-enabled employment search services. The invention is particularly applicable to the provision of employment search services utilising a publicly accessible network such as the Internet. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Internet communications have had a significant impact on the manner in which job seekers go about the process of finding employment. Whereas in times past a prospective job seeker might first consult newspaper classified advertisements, modern job seekers are more likely to search for employment vacancies ("jobs") through Internet websites and computerised search services. Prospective employers place job advertisements with employment agencies, who list the advertisements in on-line websites ("job boards") where the job ads are classified according to a title classification system. The classification system allows job seekers to select one or more classes to view available jobs matching that title descriptor. When the prospective employer arranges with the employment agency to place a job advertisement, they supply information such as the position description, location, employer, etc. Typically the agency will then assign a job title from a list of categories and sub-categories determined by the agency for classification on the job advertisement website. Largely, the job boards have similar job classification systems (Ze mostly the same job categories and sub-categories). In an alternative arrangement, employers may place job advertisements directly with an on-line job board service, in which case it is common that the employer will be provided with the predetermined lists of categories and sub-categories from which to choose.

Large organisations, which tend to employ a large number of people, frequently also have a substantial on-line presence including a website on which employment vacancies with that organisation may be advertised. Sometimes job advertisements posted on a corporate site may also be listed with an employment agency. It is notable that, when an employer devises its own job title descriptor for advertising on a corporate website, frequently the descriptor will not correspond with the classification system established by the job boards.

A feature that is favoured by users of job searching websites is the ability to select all jobs listed for a particular title category descriptive of the job sought. Job boards are able to constrain their clients when placing an advertisement to select from a list of title descriptors according to a predetermined category and sub-category system. As noted above, most of the large job boards have very similar categorizations in that there are presently around 600 or so categories (including sub-categories) in common use by such service providers. This makes it possible for on-line job board aggregators to scrape the listing from job boards and allow consolidated searching using just the categories provided by the job boards. By contrast for example, a study of many corporate website job advertisements by top Australian companies over a period of time reveals that job title descriptors devised by the prospective employers include thousands of different titles, only a minority of which match categories devised by the job boards.

Accordingly, while job searchers are able to readily identify employment opportunities of potential interest on job boards, it may be significantly more difficult to identify relevant jobs posted directly by employers on their own websites. It is firstly necessary for a job searcher to identify relevant prospective employers, and their corresponding websites, and then to identify any particular advertised jobs that may be of interest. An employer website may or may not provide a suitable search facility, however even if such a facility exists the job categories, and relevant keywords that may be required to identify relevant positions, may differ significantly from those used on job boards. The use of general-purpose Internet searching tools, such as Google™, Bing™, Yahoo™ and so forth is an inefficient means to identify either prospective employers, or corresponding job opportunities, because such search engines, and their databases and indices of web pages, are not optimised or customised for employment searches.

Similarly, a technical problem arises in any effort to implement an Internet search engine that is customised and/or optimised for job searching. Specifically, the lack of any universally consistent set of job categories and sub-categories (other than those that have generally emerged by consensus amongst operators of job boards) presents a technical barrier to the proper classification of jobs indexed by a search engine. Furthermore, any job search engine needs to be able to distinguish job advertisements from other types of web content. Generally, a job advertisement consists of structured information (eg job title, industry, location, description, requirements and so forth), however there is no single consistent format for the presentation of this information that would assist a job search engine in extracting relevant information for indexing and classification purposes. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to mitigate the abovementioned limitations and problems of the prior art, in one aspect the present invention provides a computer-implemented method for providing employment search services comprising the steps of: compiling and maintaining a database containing a list of selected employer organisations, along with associated Internet address information and job advertisement data format information relating to job advertisements made available via a website of each selected employer organisation; for each of the selected employer organisations, scraping job advertisement data from the website of the employer organisation using the Internet address information and job advertisement data format information; parsing the job advertisement data into a plurality of predetermined data fields; classifying each job advertisement by assigning a job type category and sub-category according to stored job category rules based on a predetermined relationship between the employer organisation and the contents of one or more of said predetermined data fields; storing the category and sub-category designations along with the scraped job advertisement data in a job database; receiving a job search request from a user, the job search request including at least a job type category and/or sub-category designation; identifying jobs in the job database that match the job search request; and transmitting a job search response to the user, including information relating to the identified jobs. Advantageously, embodiments of the invention enable substantial automation of the process of gathering job advertisement information from a range of selected employer organisations' websites, and compiling a categorised and searchable database of available jobs. The resulting database and job search facility provides substantially the same benefits, in terms of classification and accessibility, as a searchable job board. Job seekers are thereby enabled to gain similar levels of access, and ease of searching in respect of jobs that have been advertised by employer organisations via their own websites.

In order to satisfy this end-user requirement, embodiments of the invention address the technical problem resulting from the lack of standardised presentation of job information and/or classification of employment opportunities, that are routinely observed across a range of employer organisations. Specifically, the provision of stored job advertisement data format information for each selected employer organisation addresses the technical requirement of the extraction of broadly equivalent information provided in a range of disparate formats across different employer websites. Through this mechanism, embodiments of the invention are able to scrape relevant information from employer websites, with little or no operator intervention required, such that a searchable database of listings can be automatically updated on a regular basis. Additionally, the provision of job category rules enables uniform classification of employment opportunities, despite the lack of any corresponding standardised classification in common use by employer organisations. A major reason for this lack of standardisation is that, from the perspective of an individual employer organisation, operating in a narrow range of business activities, little or no classification is necessary, since it is clear from the context of the employer's business, and details of the advertised positions, that the job relates to an associated field and skill set. Accordingly, the job category rules may include stored sets of keywords for each employer, and job categories and sub-categories may be assigned based on a boolean logic combination of matching keywords in corresponding job advertisement data fields. That is, stored knowledge regarding the employer organisation's field of business, along with specific keywords appearing in the employer's job descriptions, can be used to determine an appropriate category and sub-category for a job, from within a uniform classification system.

It is conceivable that a single job may be relevant to multiple categories and/or subcategories, and thus the step of classifying each job advertisement may include assigning more than one job type category and/or sub-category, for example if the job matches multiple stored job category rules.

The job type category and/or sub-category designation included in the job search request may encompass multiple categories or sub-categories. For example, the user may wish to conduct a search covering all sub-categories with one or more categories. Preferably, therefore, a facility is provided to enable the user to specify such a search, for example by allowing the user to specify "all", rather than a specific single category or sub-category.

In preferred embodiments, the predetermined data fields include at least employer, job title and location descriptors, and job description text. According to a particularly preferred embodiment, the method is web-based, and is implemented via a server that is accessible over the Internet, using conventional standard web browser software. Accordingly, job search requests may be received from the user via a web-based interface (eg a form), and sent using the web browser software application. Similarly, transmitting the job search response typically includes generating and serving a web page including a listing of matching job descriptions.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, a notification service is also provided, which enables the user to specify a preferred notification communication channel, such as an SMS messaging channel (Ze by provision of a cellular mobile telephone number), or an email messaging channel (ie by provision of a suitable email address). A user-specified job search request may be stored, and periodically executed according to a notification schedule, whereby any new matching jobs that have been added to the job database may be notified to the user via the selected communications channel. The method may further comprise displaying to the user a formatted list of matching jobs in the job database, wherein the formatting accords visual prominence to jobs advertised by predetermined ones of the selected employer organisations. In particular, this mechanism may be employed in order to fund the operation of the employment search services, by enabling employer organisations to purchase subscriptions in exchange for increased prominence within the formatted listings returned to users. For example, subscribing employer organisations may be provided with prominent listings, including features such as larger presentation of their job listings, more prominent text, and inclusion of corporate branding. Other forms of subscription may include ownership of particular sub-categories, such that subscribing employers' listings are placed at the top of search results lists within the nominated sub-category. Employer organisations may also be able to purchase keywords, such that their listings will be displayed prominently when a user conducts a search using a nominated keyword.

In another aspect, the invention provides a computer-implemented system for providing employment search services comprising: an employment services database containing a list of selected employer organisations, along with associated Internet address information, job advertisement data format information, job category rules, and job advertisement data for each employer organisation; a web scraping processor operatively associated with the employment search services database and the Internet, and configured to: scrape job advertisement data from websites of the selected employer organisations, in accordance with a predetermined update schedule, using the Internet address information and data format information; parse the job advertisement data into predetermined data fields for storage in the employment services database; and assign and store a job type category and sub-category for each job advertisement using the stored job category rules, and a web-serving processor operatively associated with the employment search services database and the Internet, and configured to: receive a job search request from a user, the job search request including at least job type category and/or sub-category designation; identify jobs in the job database that match the job search request; and transmit a job search response to the user, including information relating to the identified jobs.

In yet another aspect, the invention provides an apparatus for providing employment search services comprising: at least one microprocessor; at least one memory device, operatively associated with the microprocessor; at least one network interface, operatively associated with the microprocessor; and an employment services database, accessible to the microprocessor, and containing a list of selected employer organisations, along with associated Internet address information, job advertisement data format information, job category rules, and job advertisement data for each employer organisation, wherein the memory device contains executable instruction code which, when executed by the microprocessor, causes the apparatus to implement a method comprising the steps of: for each of the selected employer organisations, accessing an employer website via the network interface, and scraping job advertisement data from the website using the Internet address information and job advertisement data format information; parsing the job advertisement data into a plurality of predetermined data fields; classifying each job advertisement by assigning a job type category and sub-category according to job category rules retrieved from the employment services database, the job category rules being based on a predetermined relationship between the employer organisation and the contents of one or more of said predetermined data fields; storing the category and sub-category designations along with the scraped job advertisement data in the employment services database; receiving, via the network interface, a job search request from a user, the job search request including at least a job type category and/or sub-category designation; identifying jobs in the employment services database that match the job search request; and transmitting, via the network interface, a job search response to the user, including information relating to the identified jobs. Further advantages and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments, which will nonetheless be understood as exemplary, and not limiting of the scope of the invention as defined in any of the preceding statements, or in the claims appended hereto. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The following description explains details of the invention to enable it to be more fully understood in the context of an embodiment thereof, also referring to the illustrations and reference numerals in the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 (a) is a diagrammatic illustration of a system for providing computer-enabled employment search services according to an embodiment of the invention;

Figure 1 (b) is a block diagram detailing the general architecture of the employment search server of Figure 1 (a);

Figure 2 is a flowchart illustrating an employment search services on-line interface procedure for job seekers according to a preferred embodiment of the invention;

Figure 3 is a flowchart illustrating an employment search services data collection and classification procedure according to the preferred embodiment; and

Figure 4 is a flowchart illustrating a notification procedure according to the preferred embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A computer-enabled employment search services system 10 is diagrammatically illustrated in Figure 1 (a). The system 10 aggregates jobs posted on prospective employer websites by scraping job advertisement data and categorising the jobs for searching by on-line job seekers. The system includes an employment search server (ESS) 20 which may be a single computer or collection of networked computers and which is coupled to communicate by way of the Internet 40. The employment search server 20 includes data storage 30 for storing job advertisement data and advertisement classification rules which are described in greater detail below with reference to Figures 2 to 4.

A plurality of employer web-servers 50 are coupled to the Internet 40 to provide on-line accessible information including employment positions available at the company (ie job advertisements). The employer organisations may comprise corporations, governmental departments, NGOs, and other organisations that employ people. One or more of the employer websites may be hosted by third parties.

A job seeker is represented by the computer 60 shown in communication with the Internet 40 to allow searching of on-line job postings. In one scenario the job seeker 60 could consult each individual employer website to look for appropriate jobs. This process may be acceptable for one or a few organisations at most, but would not be appropriate if the job seeker wishes to consider a large number of different companies. In such circumstances the job seeker 60 can, instead of searching each individual employer's positions vacant webpage, consult a website provided by the employment search server 20, which operates in a manner as described below.

The employment search server 20 operates to periodically scrape posted job advertisement data from employer (eg corporate) websites and provide aggregated job listings from the plurality of companies. These listings are made accessible to, and searchable by, job seekers 60 through a single employment search services website. For further explanation of steps and procedures carried out by the employment search server 20 reference is made to flow chart diagrams in Figures 2 to 4. Figure 2 diagrammatically illustrates a procedure 200 involving on-line interface between the job seeker 60 and employment search server 20. Figure 3 diagrammatically illustrates a procedure 300 involving the employment search server 20 and its collection and categorisation of job advertisement data from employer corporate websites 50. Figure 4 diagrammatically illustrates a procedure 400 for the employment search server 20 to provide the job seeker 60 with notification of available jobs.

Figure 1 (b) is a block diagram detailing the general architecture of the employment search server 20. As noted above, the server 20 may comprise a collection of networked computers, however for simplicity only a single server is represented in Figure 1 (b).

The server 20 includes at least one processor 21 , which is interfaced, or otherwise operatively associated, with a high-capacity, non-volatile memory/storage device 22, such as one or more hard disk drives. The storage device 22 is used primarily to contain programs and data required for the operation of the server computer 20, and for the implementation and operation of various software components implementing an embodiment of the present invention. The means by which appropriate configuration and programming of the server computer 20 may be achieved (eg programming languages, software development environments, and so forth) are well-known in the art, and accordingly will not be discussed in detail herein.

The storage device 22 may also be used to host the databases 30, or alternatively the databases may be remotely located, eg hosted by a database server, and accessible via a network or other interconnection.

The server computer 20 further includes an additional storage medium 23, typically being a suitable type of volatile memory, such as random access memory, for containing program instructions and transient data relating to the operation of the computer 20. Additionally, the computer 20 includes a network interface 24, accessible to the processor 21 , facilitating communications via the Internet 40. Also shown in Figure 1 (b) is a further peripheral interface 25, for example providing connections to other computer peripherals, including input and output devices such as displays, keyboards, pointing devices, and so forth. Of course it will be appreciated that a conventional general-purpose computer includes various further components, however since these are not essential to a description of the present invention, full details of the architecture of the computer 20 have been omitted for clarity.

The volatile memory device 23 contains a body of program instructions 26, embodying various software-implemented features of the present invention, as described in greater detail below with reference to Figures 2 to 4 of the accompanying drawings. In general, these features include data gathering, analysis and processing functions implementing a method for providing employment search services via the Internet, to remotely located users. Additionally, a network server application is implemented, ie a web server or the like, to facilitate access to the employment search services by remotely located users executing conventional software, ie a web browser.

The procedure 200 illustrated in the Figure 2 flowchart is initiated at step 202 by a job seeker with a computer having Internet communications facility. The job seeker accesses the employment search server website at step 204 using Internet web browsing software such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and supplying the ESS website Internet address. The ESS website presents the job seeker with options to supply information (step 206) in order to search for jobs advertised directly by employer companies. For example, the ESS website allows the job seeker to select from amongst a plurality of job type categories and job type sub- categories which are classification descriptors for job advertisements that have been scraped from employer websites. The job seeker can select one or multiple job categories, locations, and/or employers, and may also supply additional information to help narrow the search, such a keyword (or boolean string of keywords) to be found in the advertisement. In selecting multiple categories, location, employers and so forth, a facility is preferably provided enabling the job searcher to specify that the search be conducted across all available selections, for example by selecting a specific option "all" from a corresponding list. A work type categorisation may also be used to specify a search for full-time, part-time, casual, temporary or fixed term contract work. An industry classification may be used to specify a search for jobs in a specific field of endeavour, for example retail, mining, healthcare, legal, hospitality, etc.

The job type category and sub-category descriptors are the primary search indices into a database of job advertisement data captured from employer websites. A job type category and sub-category descriptor are assigned to each job advertisement at the time the job is obtained from the employer in a manner described in detail below. At step 208 the ESS matches jobs in its database with the job type category and sub-category selected by the job seeker. The results are also filtered using any additional search criteria supplied, and matching job advertisements are returned to the job seeker with the option to select any job of interest. If no job is selected (step 210) the job seeker can refine or change the search criteria including job type (step 212) to generate further job ad search results at step 208. When a job from the ESS website is selected by the job seeker at step 210 the job seeker is supplied with details about the job available from the ESS database (step 214). In practice this may be accomplished on the jobseeker's computer by opening a new browser window relevent to the selected job.

Sometimes employer organisations that advertise jobs on their own websites also provide an on-line job application process. This information is also noted in the ESS database whereby if the job selected by the job seeker has a corresponding on-line application facility the job seeker is directed to the employer's on-line application address (steps 216, 218). Otherwise the job seeker is supplied with the employer's information for making a job application in a conventional manner (step 220).

If the job seeker wishes to review further job advertisements for selection (step 222) then he or she is returned to the ESS website search routine (step 212). Alternatively the process 200 finishes at step 224 when the job seeker leaves the ESS website.

The flow chart in Figure 3 diagrammatically illustrates a procedure 300 through with the ESS maintains a categorised database of job advertisements posted on selected employer organisation websites for searchable access by job seekers as described hereinabove. Once initiated at step 302 the procedure 300 functions as a database maintenance cycle that updates the ESS job advertisement database 100 with job advertisement data obtained from employer websites. The employment search server has a stored list of selected employer organisations that post job advertisements on their websites. The organisations can be selected using stock exchange rankings and data, governmental statistics and publications and market research information, for example, with the aim of selecting the organisations that advertise the most jobs on their websites. The list of employer organisations is stored along with on-line address information and an update schedule 306 for each. The update schedule 306 specifies when each employer organisation website is checked for new job advertisements. The schedule could specify, for example, an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly update basis, depending upon the employer organisation. In practice each employer website may be checked multiple times each day, to ensure up-to-date job searching for the users.

At step 304 the ESS accesses the update schedule 306 in order to identify an employer organisation in respect of which the ESS database 100 is to be updated. Using stored on-line address information for the selected employer organisation, the ESS scrapes the selected employer website of job advertisement data at step 308. The step of scraping 308 is facilitated by provision of job scrape rules 314, which define, for example, the method of accessing job-related information on the employer website, and for extracting that portion of the content relating to advertised employment opportunities. Since it is possible that the format and/or location of relevant information on the employer website may change, or that the job scrape rules 314 for a particular employer may be incorrect or incomplete, the ESS checks for scraping errors at step 310. If a scraping error occurs, it may be necessary to amend the job scrape rules at step 312. The amendment of job scrape rules may require the intervention of a human operator, and accordingly the step 312 may include issuing a suitable notification (eg via email) alerting the operator of the need to amend the job scrape rules 314 for the particular selected employer.

If no scraping error occurs, job advertisement data is parsed at step 316. This step involves converting the data from its original format on the employer website into components suitable for storage in the ESS database 100. The job advertisement data varies in format from one employer organisation to another, and accordingly the ESS maintains a record of predetermined information concerning the data format of job advertisement data for each employer. A number of commercially available software packages are widely used for encoding of job advertisement data, examples including Taleo™, PageUp™, BigRedSky™, NGA™, and so forth. Accordingly, specific program modules may be provided in the ESS for scraping and/or parsing different employer job websites according to the particular software utilised for job advertisement data encoding. These modules may include specifically developed executable program code and/or parsing rules, which may be stored along with the job scrape rules 314, for example. It will be appreciated that the scraping and parsing steps 308, 316 may be closely related, and accordingly the particular sequence of steps 308, 310, 316 may be combined and/or executed in an alternative order from that shown in the process 300. All such variations fall within the scope of the present invention.

Through the parsing process at step 316, the scraped job advertisement data is converted for storage in the ESS database 100 in defined fields such as employer, job title, industry, geographical location, job description, job requirements, job identifier, employer contact, applicant procedure, and so forth.

At step 318, the job advertisement data is used to compare with jobs already known for that employer and stored in the ESS database 100. Typically each job for a given employer has some unique identifier, such as a reference number, that can be easily matched to ascertain if a job ad is known or not. If it is determined that a job advertisement is new to the ESS database (step 320) then the procedure performs a categorisation process, described below with reference to steps 322 to 328. If the scraped job advertisement relates to a job not known in the ESS database 100, the job is categorised at step 322 by assigning job type category and sub-category search descriptors according to stored job category rules 328. The job category rules can be implemented by specifying keywords, data fields and boolean operators for matching with the scraped job ad data. Each employer organisation can have its own job category rules 328 since rules may be applied differently from one organisation to another. For example, a job advertised with the title of Analyst, depending upon the employer and/or position description could refer to the sub-category Analyst in any one of the following job type categories: Accounting, Banking/Finance, Insurance, IT & Telecommunications, Marketing, Real Estate, Sales, Transport/Logistics. It will be appreciated, therefore, that the job category rules 328 can incorporate some knowledge of the employer organisation in order to make better-informed classifications. A job advertisement titled Analyst scraped from the website of a company known to specialise in marketing services might be presumed to fall into the Marketing Analyst category unless keywords in the position description were to indicate otherwise. Similarly, the presumption might be for the Software Analyst category in the case of an advertisement scraped from a computer programming company. In another example, the term "customer service operator" may be used by different employers to specify roles having quite different requirements in terms of background, skills and experience. This term may, for example, relate to a "teller" for an employer in the financial services sector, and to a "checkout operator" for an employer in the retail services sector. It will further be appreciated that some types of employers, and particularly large organisations, may offer positions across a number of different categories. For example, a large consulting company may employ both Marketing Analysts and Software Analysts. Accordingly, the job description itself may be processed in order to obtain further information regarding the most appropriate categorisation for a particular scraped job advertisement. If the job description contains one or more keywords associated with the Marketing Analyst category (eg "marketing", "consumer", "survey"), then the job may be assigned to this category. Alternatively, the presence of different keywords {eg "software", "requirements", "specification") may indicate that the job should be assigned to the Software Analyst category. Such criteria may be assessed by human operators, and are preferably incorporated into stored rules (as discussed further below) in order to increase the level of automation in the system.

Categorisation of the job advertisements scraped from employer websites is an important function because employer organisations, when they are posting job ads for their own websites, do not follow a uniform job type classification system. Since the jobs are advertised on the employer's own website, typically the job advertisements presume some level of knowledge by the job seeker of the employer organisation. Accordingly, one of the functions of the categorisation of scraped job advertisements is to build some of the presumed knowledge into the job category rules, such as in an expert system or the like.

The job type categories and sub-categories are developed from analysis of the job ads scraped from employer websites over time. In the event that the job category rules are insufficient to enable categorisation of a job, step 324 the procedure allows for the job category rules to be amended at step 326. In particular, in the procedure 300 shown, at step 326 a new sub-category or rule can be added to the stored rules 328, or an existing sub-category or rule can be altered, to accommodate classification of the job in question. Amending the job category rules at step 326 can be undertaken by manually changing the rule set based on off-line personal observation and analysis, or can be performed by an automated computer analysis procedure that formulates categorisation rules automatically based on the job advertisement data. Either way, once new rules have been developed and incorporated into the stored rule set 328, similar jobs may subsequently be automatically categorised using the rules.

In some embodiments, all categorised jobs may be subject to review by a human operator before being committed to the ESS database 100. The review may comprise presenting the operator with details of the scraped job advertisement, and resulting categorisation, including a link to the original advertisement on the corresponding employer website. If the job has been correctly classified, the operator may simply confirm the categorisation and commit the job to the database 100. Alternatively, if the operator considers that the job has been incorrectly classified, then the categorisation may be manual adjusted before committing to the database 100. Additionally, the operator may update the job category rules to ensure that similar jobs are subsequently classified correctly.

The categorised job advertisement is stored in the ESS database 100 at step 330 for searching by job seekers through the ESS website. Step 332 determines whether there are further job advertisements for processing for a given employer website, each job advertisement that is scraped is compared and categorised (steps 318 to 330) until there are none remaining. The procedure then continues to step 334 where out-of-date job ads are removed from the ESS database 100. If a previously posted job for the selected employer is not found during the update process then, barring some other exceptional circumstance (such as the employer website being inaccessible or inoperative during the update procedure), it can be assumed that the corresponding position has been filled or withdrawn and can be removed from the ESS job database 100.

Steps 336 and 228, in combination with job referencing rules 340, allow for a final check to be made on the operation of the update process. In view of the fact that the ESS has no control over the format or content of the employer websites, errors may occur in identifying new jobs, eg resulting in duplication of entries in the database 100, or in matching of removed jobs, eg resulting in failure to delete entries from the database. The job referencing rules 340 facilitate the management of new and deleted jobs, and step 336 provides an opportunity (eg for a human operator) to check the correct operation of these rules. If any errors occur, the rules 340 may be updated accordingly at step 338.

As part of the job searching procedure the job seeker may optionally supply contact information such as email address or cellular mobile telephone number to be stored by the ESS along with the jobseeker's search criteria. Using that information the ESS may, at a future time, issue a notification message to the jobseeker via the selected contact channel in the event that a job scraped from an employer site matched the search criteria. The notification procedure may be implemented by the ESS in a separate off-line routine. The notification procedure may be carried out each time new job advertisement data is obtained, allowing the jobseeker's search criteria to be applied to all new jobs without having to check with the ESS website multiple times.

Figure 4 is a flowchart 400 outlining a notification procedure that can be implemented on the ESS in order to provide job seekers with information about relevant advertised jobs. The job seeker commences the job notification procedure 402, and accesses the ESS website at step 404. In like manner to step 206 of the process 200, the job seeker selects a job category and/or supplies other job selection or search criteria, at step 406. The job seeker's search criteria are then stored or saved in a database record 408. The job seeker may be provided with an option to conduct an immediate search for current relevant job details, in accordance with the steps 208 to 214 of the process 200.

The process 400 differs from the process 200 in that it enables subsequent automated notification to be provided to the job seeker when relevant new job advertisements are identified. To facilitate this function, at step 410 the job seeker supplies preferred communications contact information, typically an email address and/or a cellular mobile telephone number to which an SMS text message may be sent. The contact information is stored in an associated record 412. Subsequent notifications are generated in accordance with a notification schedule 416. The notification schedule 416 specifies when each job seeker who has provided search criteria 408 and contact information 412 should be notified of any new relevant job advertisement that may have been posted by employer organisations, and scraped by the ESS. The schedule 416 could specify, for example, on an immediate, hourly, daily, and/or weekly update basis, depending upon the requirements of the job seeker. At the scheduled time, step 414 is executed, wherein the job seeker's search criteria 408 are compared against job details stored in the ESS database 100, and step 418, determines whether any relevant new job advertisements have been identified at this time. If not, then the notification process ends 422, until the next scheduled time.

Alternatively, if new relevant job advertisements are identified, at step 420 the ESS accesses the database 100 to retrieve the relevant job details, and composes a notification message for transmission to the job seeker, in accordance with the preferred contact information 412. The notification alert message will provide the job seeker with information that a relevant job advertisement has been found, and may provide additional information about the job advertisement, depending upon the communications medium. For example, an email alert message could contain all of the relevant scraped job advertisement information, including a link enabling the user to access the on-line application process (steps 216 to 218), whereas an SMS text message alert may be less-detailed, and include less additional functionality. In another case, the notification alert message will provide the job seeker with sufficient information to enable retrieval of the relevant job advertisement from the ESS database 100 through the ESS on-line interface.

Operation of the job search service, and ESS 20, may optionally be funded via subscription or other form of payment. In like manner to conventional recruitment processes, it is preferred that funding be provided by the employer organisations, and that the search service is provided at no cost to job seekers. At the same time, it is recognised that the practical utility of the job search service depends upon its providing access to a high proportion of relevant advertised jobs at any given time. Accordingly, it is undesirable that payment by an employer organisation be a prerequisite for the classification and indexing of corresponding jobs within the ESS database 100.

A number of funding models are therefore envisaged, within the scope of the present invention. These funding models are generally based on providing subscribing or paying employers with privileged access to relevant job seekers. Employer organisations may, for example, pay a one-off fee and/or a regular subscription amount, for enhanced listing of the organisation's job opportunities. Enhanced listing may include the display of the subscribing organisation's job advertisement in a larger format, including more prominent text, and optionally the organisation's corporate logo. This effectively provides the employer organisation with the additional benefit of branding on the ESS website.

Another funding option is to enable a paying or subscribing employer organisation to "own" a particular sub-category of job listings. For example, a major software company may pay for "ownership" of the Software Analyst category. In return, job advertisements posted by that company may be listed first, or otherwise given enhanced prominence, when listings within that particular category are displayed. Such category ownership may be limited to one or more specified geographical locations, in view of the fact that may employers may be interested primarily in candidates seeking jobs in the locality of their work premises.

In yet another possible funding model, employer organisations may pay for ownership of particular search keywords. For example, job seekers may often search for relevant employment opportunities using keywords relating to their particular skills and experience. These may include, for example, proficiency in the use of particular software applications, as a result of which the names of such applications may be used as keywords. An employer organisation wishing to be presented more prominently to prospective applicants having skills with a particular application, may purchase the name of that application as a keyword, in return for which the organisation's job advertisements will be listed more prominently in the results of any search using that keyword.

Another source of funding for the ESS is to provide an ancillary web-hosting service. For example, there are many employer organisations that may wish to advertise employment opportunities via the Internet, but cannot justify the cost of maintaining the cost of their own on-line systems for this purpose. The operator of the ESS may therefore provide a hosting service, available for a fee to such employer organisations. All jobs listed via the associated hosting service would automatically be incorporated into the ESS database 100. Various other forms of funding could also be employed, within the general scope of the present invention.

The computerised employment search services system and method as described hereinabove enables provision of an Internet accessible job board of aggregated job vacancy listings taken directly from prospective employer's websites and categorised according to predetermined rules. This enables searching for jobs by category and sub-category, which is highly desirable to job seekers but is not possible simply by aggregating job listings and relying on the employer's title for classification. Throughout this specification, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise", or variations such as "comprises" and "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers.

The foregoing detailed description of the present invention has been presented by way of example only and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention as defined in the claims appended hereto.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A computer-implemented method for providing employment search services comprising the steps of: compiling and maintaining a database containing a list of selected employer organisations, along with associated Internet address information and job advertisement data format information relating to job advertisements made available via a website of each selected employer organisation; for each of the selected employer organisations, scraping job advertisement data from the website of the employer organisation using the Internet address information and job advertisement data format information; parsing the job advertisement data into a plurality of predetermined data fields; classifying each job advertisement by assigning a job type category and sub-category according to stored job category rules based on a predetermined relationship between the employer organisation and the contents of one or more of said predetermined data fields; storing the category and sub-category designations along with the scraped job advertisement data in a job database; receiving a job search request from a user, the job search request including at least a job type category and/or sub-category designation; identifying jobs in the job database that match the job search request; and transmitting a job search response to the user, including information relating to the identified jobs.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the predetermined data fields include at least employer, job title and location descriptors, and job description text.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the job category rules include stored sets of keywords for each employer and wherein job categories and sub-categories are assigned based on a boolean logic combination of matching keywords in corresponding job advertisement data fields.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of receiving a job search request comprises receiving job search request information entered by a user via a web-based interface, and sent using a web browser application.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of transmitting a job search response to the user comprises transmitting a listing of matching jobs in the job database formatted for display to the user via a web browser application.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of transmitting is repeated automatically in accordance with a stored notification schedule, and comprises transmitting a job search notification message via a communications channel nominated by the user.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the communications channel is one of an SMS messaging channel or an email messaging channel.

8. The method of claim 1 which comprises displaying to the user a formatted list of matching jobs in the job database, wherein the formatting accords visual prominence to jobs advertised by predetermined ones of said selected employer organisations.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the predetermined employer organisations are paid subscribers to the employment search service.

10. A computer-implemented system for providing employment search services comprising: an employment services database containing a list of selected employer organisations, along with associated Internet address information, job advertisement data format information, job category rules, and job advertisement data for each employer organisation; a web scraping processor operatively associated with the employment search services database and the Internet, and configured to: scrape job advertisement data from websites of the selected employer organisations, in accordance with a predetermined update schedule, using the Internet address information and data format information; parse the job advertisement data into predetermined data fields for storage in the employment services database; and assign and store a job type category and sub-category for each job advertisement using the stored job category rules, and a web-serving processor operatively associated with the employment search services database and the Internet, and configured to: receive a job search request from a user, the job search request including at least job type category and/or sub-category designation; identify jobs in the job database that match the job search request; and transmit a job search response to the user, including information relating to the identified jobs.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the predetermined data fields include at least employer, job title and location descriptors, and job description text.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the job category rules include stored sets of keywords for each employer and wherein job categories and sub-categories are assigned based on a boolean logic combination of matching keywords in corresponding job advertisement data fields.

13. An apparatus for providing employment search services comprising: at least one microprocessor; at least one memory device, operatively associated with the microprocessor; at least one network interface, operatively associated with the microprocessor; and an employment services database, accessible to the microprocessor, and containing a list of selected employer organisations, along with associated Internet address information, job advertisement data format information, job category rules, and job advertisement data for each employer organisation, wherein the memory device contains executable instruction code which, when executed by the microprocessor, causes the apparatus to implement a method comprising the steps of: for each of the selected employer organisations, accessing an employer website via the network interface, and scraping job advertisement data from the website using the Internet address information and job advertisement data format information; parsing the job advertisement data into a plurality of predetermined data fields; classifying each job advertisement by assigning a job type category and sub-category according to job category rules retrieved from the employment services database, the job category rules being based on a predetermined relationship between the employer organisation and the contents of one or more of said predetermined data fields; storing the category and sub-category designations along with the scraped job advertisement data in the employment services database; receiving, via the network interface, a job search request from a user, the job search request including at least a job type category and/or sub-category designation; identifying jobs in the employment services database that match the job search request; and transmitting, via the network interface, a job search response to the user, including information relating to the identified jobs.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the predetermined data fields include at least employer, job title and location descriptors, and job description text.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the job category rules include stored sets of keywords for each employer and wherein job categories and sub-categories are assigned based on a boolean logic combination of matching keywords in corresponding job advertisement data fields.