Philadelphia-area employers have teamed up to create a free digital platform aimed at helping job seekers find employment opportunities.
PropelPHL launched this week as the first Philadelphia-based professional networking website. The group behind the platform is Hire! Philly, an employer-led workforce intermediary for the region. Founded in 2018, Hire! Philly designed PropelPHL with funding from founding partners including the Lenfest Foundation, PECO, Philadelphia City Council, and Starbucks.
Unlike other professional networking sites, PropelPHL wants to take a more holistic approach to connect talent with opportunity. The site expands upon Hire! Philly's mission by putting the local workforce ecosystem in one digital space and focusing primarily on uplifting local communities. Businesses can post job openings, job seekers can chat directly with employers and career coaches, and the site offers links to online career training services and financial resources.
PropelPHL seeks to differ from job search engines like Indeed and Glassdoor in that it is powered by skills rather than keyword searches.
"PropelPHL uses keywords to match a job seeker with an opportunity based on skills, and even the skills [of the seeker] matching with the skills [required by the employer] is a very intuitive and specific equation," said Kathryn Epps Roberson, Hire Philly! Executive Director. "It's weighted on years of experience, how critical that skill is to that employer – whether it's a requirement or just nice to have. The way that this platform makes those matches is never just based on keywords on a resume."
Further, the site's main focus in its first few months is to secure employment for the 600,000 Philadelphia residents who lost their jobs during the pandemic.
Philadelphia's unemployment rate averaged at 12% throughout 2020 – tripling from 5.9% in February to 18% in June – which made it the third-highest among America's major cities behind Detroit and Cleveland. The number of jobs in the city decreased by over 40,000 between 2019 and 2020, peaking at 100,000. The leisure and hospitality sector was hit the hardest due to stay-at-home orders; one third of its jobs disappeared in 2020.
Employers with listings on the site include Comcast, Aramark, University of Pennsylvania and Staples.
Future initiatives include working with local community centers like the Free Library of Philadelphia to open places where residents without internet access can log on to the site, and combatting the long-standing educational barriers that have led to high unemployment rates in Philadelphia historically.
One in four Philadelphians already lived in poverty before the pandemic, according to the Pew Research Center.
Phase two of PropelPHL will focus on pipelining for high school students by using the platform to connect community colleges and employers with school districts to inform students of opportunities earlier in their high school career. Hire! Philly plans to launch phase two by the end of the year.
"What we're essentially trying to accomplish is that by the time a student graduates from high school, if they're not going directly to a two-year or four-year college program, they're positioned to go directly into the workforce. Not directly into a minimum wage job, but a high-paying, living wag job that's in high demand," Roberson said. "Any education, training, or other information that needs to be provided to that student in order for them to be ready will be accessible to them through PropelPHL throughout their entire high school career."
