BEIRUT: Lebanon’s state-run National Employment Office launched an online job matching service Friday, connecting job seekers and employers, free of charge.

The service, named Electronic Labor Exchange, will aim at reducing the cost of labor market information and enhance opportunities to link appropriate candidates to relevant jobs, the International Labor Organization said in an emailed statement.

The website is the product of a four-year collaboration between the ILO, the NEO, with funding provided by the Canadian International Development Agency.

“The NEO website offers a secure and easy way to search for work. Users can log in 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It makes job search and job posting easier and more efficient,” NEO Director General Jean Abi Fadel said.

The website will also offer informational material on job search techniques and labor market trends, the statement said.

Canada’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Hilary Childs-Adams, noted that this represents “a major policy change and a step forward for Lebanon’s labor market and workforce.”

The ILO works with the NEO to enhance its institutional capacity to deliver employment services, to improve the connectivity of municipalities, employers and job seekers to a general network of employment related information, the statement said.

“We face a major challenge in the Arab region to create and sustain decent jobs: those that add value, reflect skills, include social protection and enshrine social dialogue. Lebanon is no exception,” said Nada al-Nashif, ILO’s regional director for the Arab States.

“We must strengthen existing labor market programs, introduce new ones and continue to enhance the capacity of National Employment Office to deliver on its mandate,” Nashif added.

The electronic labor exchange can be accessed via the homepage of the NEO’s website www.neo.gov.lb in Arabic, French and English.