Recruitment startups focused on blue-collar workers are using artificial intelligence to improve matching accuracy and hiring efficiency in the informal economy of Pakistan.
Rozgar.pk, a service of the country’s leading jobs site Rozee.pk, will use AI to monitor its applicants. The site captures the original self-snap of candidate rather than depending on a random photo, which may or may not be fake.
Citizen identity numbers are required for registration, too. Since the number is exclusive, it gives most of details of job applicants related to its gender, residence and family relation.
Rozgar, an Urdu word that means livelihood in English, builds connection of skilled and unskilled workers with employers, much like a reverse recruitment marketplace. Unlike job boards, the site doesn’t showcase listings and requires employers and job-seekers to fill in the data with audio guideline tagged to each step to follow.
Considering the language barrier, the site runs commentary in the national language. An employer can post jobs on pre-defined standardized form.
Both Rozgar and Rozee are owned by Naseeb Networks that also runs job site Mihnati.com in Saudi Arabia.
Mobile-first
KamKaj.pk is contemporary competitor of Rozgar.pk that focuses on independent contractors. They also emphasize mobile services, which is important in a country with 169 million mobile subscribers.
KamKaj, meaning job, provides access to price estimates and reviews through its app. Both the newcomers have some value-accretive propositions and environment that precedes digital transformation.
Coronavirus challenges
Covid-induced job losses are compelling people to use non-traditional employment channels to find jobs.
According to Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, a public policy think tank, an estimated 18.5 million jobs will be lost due to economic shutdown related to coronavirus. The count is a massive 30% of total employed people in the country.
The Covid shock jolted the already ailing economy with growth having contracted by 0.4% during the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2020 for the first time in many decades. The contraction followed an insufficient 1.5% growth in the preceding fiscal year.
Economists agree that 7% to 8% growth is needed to accommodate the country’s growing workforce.
Informal sector that is largely undocumented and seen by independent economists as equivalent in size to the formal economy of $280 billion accommodates 45% of the total workforce, according to the latest official labor survey.
