Evolution of data matching

The ‘Evolution of data matching’ project aims to evaluate an advanced matching system for the public employment service in Switzerland. The evaluation will form the basis for developing a more effective system that allows enhanced data quality and more efficient matching of jobseekers to job vacancies than the current system.  

The main goal of the project is to implement a consistent, seamless matching platform in the Unemployment Insurance’s IT infrastructure. The resulting service is intended to improve the way jobseekers’ skills and competencies are determined and integrated, thereby helping to ensure more efficient and effective proposed job matches by the public employment service. This improved matching will benefit both jobseekers and employers. A key component is the introduction of a standard index of occupations and competencies for the UI as a basis on which to assign available or necessary skills and competencies to jobseekers and job postings.  

The project is being carried out in consideration of the existing UI business and IT architectures and in line with the 2030 Public Employment Service Strategy and contributes to further digitalisation of IT systems in the enforcement offices.

The current solution design seeks to develop a matching platform within the UI’s IT infrastructure, which allows seamless documentation of competencies and more effective searching and matching in the public employment service.  

The components of the main functions are briefly described below:

Data extraction and categorisation
The aim is to use existing data on vacancies and jobseekers to generate precise proposals for recording relevant competencies and to automatically categorise them according to a specified index of competencies. Data extraction is automated where possible to reduce manual data entry effort and improve data quality.

Competency-based matching in job placement
The matching platform identifies suitable vacancies and/or jobseekers, taking into account the existing and required competencies, which are used as an additional matching criterion. Both the supply and demand side are taken into account in order to improve the quality of matching results and reduce placement effort.

Advanced search
The matching platform uses modern search technologies, such as semantic and cognitive search functions. This advanced search also takes account of synonyms, homonyms and related terms.

Index management
This functional component involves the management of the index of occupations and competencies as well as all basic data for search and match functionalities.

The matching platform is intended to allow user-friendly management of the indexes. By connecting up external sources for the occupation and competencies index (e.g. reference system for documenting skills and competencies), the effort involved in maintaining an up-to-date database will be minimised. It should also be possible to modify the index data obtained externally at any time, for example to reflect specific requirements of the Swiss labour market (such as occupation titles and skills or competencies that are only recognised or customary in Switzerland, or other Swiss specificities).  

Overall, the components listed above aim to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the public employment service through enhanced data quality and more advanced matching algorithms.  

A precondition for the realisation of the solution design is a successfully-implemented prototype (Proof of Concept, PoC), including a corresponding feasibility- and cost-benefit analysis, which comprises the following aspects:

• Verifying the feasibility and benefit of a matching platform in the existing UI business and IT architecture and with the available databases
• Benchmarking of planned and current matching functionality
• Examining acceptance of the solution by the main stakeholder groups (enforcement offices)

When evaluating prototypes, particular emphasis will be placed on practical feedback and assessments. For benchmark tests as part of the PoC, suitable user representatives from the enforcement offices will therefore be recruited in the first quarter of 2024. On the basis of a fact-based assessment of various approaches to implementing the solution design, a decision will subsequently be made regarding the procurement of a suitable matching solution.