Coronavirus: COVID-19 Rendered Jobless Victims to get Job from Early Launch of Upstream Board

According to a TechCrunch study, a new job board, Upstream, has launched ahead of schedule to try to help people return to work after they’ve been laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The board, founded by Alexander Taub and Michael Schonfeld, was beta-tested last November with about 800 professionals, aiming to give people a way to communicate, ask questions, and find resources in a new, easier way than is currently provided by LinkedIn and other competitors.

The board is considered comfortable for both digital and smartphone use.

The aim was to launch in the summer, but the current pandemic of coronavirus seemed to demand a response, so Taub and Schonfeld rolled it out early. The spiralling layoffs of the coronavirus, store closures, and shutdowns in recent weeks have left vast numbers of people out of work, which Taub said was the key reason for an early launch.

He said that having an economic recession would have been one issue but the lack of demand due to no one being able to congregate and shop in an even more catastrophic manner like normal, compounds the problem.

Upstream will focus heavily on job recruitment and recommendations as it begins, with a specific group designated for COVID-19 unemployment cases. After signing up, users can join the community and post one of several options: hiring, searching for a job, or looking to help. Taub said that the restricted number of choices is one primary difference from other boards of jobs.

Users will then have the chance to follow up on other posts. With the potential for the mass upswing in posts, Taub said there may be limits in place to prevent all too many posts at once. And with the unemployment record high, the site can find an audience very quickly.

Taub said, though the primary focus of the site was on business professionals, some teachers, small business owners, and others had also found their use on the site. “Jews in Tech, Business Development, and Earlybirds” are some of the other categories that will be present on the site other than COVID-19 hit jobless victims.