LIKE waves lashing the beach, there could be no counting of job seekers. They are always there; the numbers rising every year.

A confirmation of this fact comes from those at naukri.com, the oldest and largest online job site of the nation. Recently, the Web site has opened an office in the city.

"Even though we had started the office on March 1, we became fully operational just a month back. Even during this short period, we are overwhelmed by the local response," said Gopakumar, assistant manager - corporate sales.

For a site that claims to get about 2.5 lakhs hits every day, naukri.com could not ignore the potential manpower in Kochi. They claim that ever since the new office started working, the number of job seekers have also increased.

Launched in 1997 as "a floor-less employment exchange" with a vision "to create a platform where, in 20 years time, every Indian who is looking for a job can find one", the Web site has about 1.7 million registered job seekers; Of them 15,000 are from this city alone and the number of job seekers here "is growing at the rate of over 1,500 a month." Right now, the firm has offices at 14 locations across the nation.

"We have about 7,000 corporates and 1,500 consultants offering placement to a variety of job seekers. Also, we do not charge anything from those who register with us". That's the one reason for more and more youngsters warming up to our Web site.
With the official machinery like the employment exchanges under the State Government coming nowhere near fulfilling demands of this ever-increasing population of job seekers, enterprising young people are moving closer to e-recruitment services like naukri.com, as is evident from its popularity.

"Since the launch of our office, we had been able to organise walk-in interviews as well. However, those who are not stationed at Kochi are not left out as they can avail our services online." The Web site charges a nominal fee for special services like resume developing etc. For those exploring the cyber space for a job placement, this might not be the only window.