Last year’s DuPont layoffs inspired Markell to build this online job finder

Governor Jack Markell was less than pleased when Dupont announced a corporate restructuring that would lay off a quarter of its Delaware workers by March of 2016.
“Deeply disappointing,” he said in a statement released at the time. “DuPont’s number one asset is its people, and the innovations that the company has produced during its storied history are a testament to the quality of those people.”
Now, with just days left before he leaves office, Markell is hoping to prove the state is still invested in the employment of its citizens with a job placement hub called the Talent Exchange. The employment resource website for dislocated workers was developed with consulting firm Aon Hewitt.
“After the announcement last year that DuPont would be restructuring, we felt it was time to take a hard look at these resources, and determine ways to improve the user experience and enhance our ability to be successful in finding job placements,” said Markell in a statement. “We feel very good about the results, and now hope our citizens utilize them and discover all of the new ways they can help.”
The platform allows the state to obtain and share real-time data about local talent across agencies such as the Department of Labor and the Economic Development Office. The exchange of that data (yep, that’s where the name comes from) allows the state to then hopefully connect folks to new job opportunities faster.
In other words, the state wants dislocated workers to use Talent Exchange as the sole state touch point in their career search. It’s a nifty tool.
“The Talent Exchange will allow us to see on demand what skills may be available for placement in new job opportunities,” said Bernice Whaley, director of the Delaware Economic Development Office. “That will not only allow us to more rapidly respond to inquiries from businesses looking to hire, but will also allow us to actively market these skills to companies inside and outside of Delaware.”