The following press release was authored by Think Beyond the Label and originally posted on November 29, 2011.

Think Beyond the Label Creates Jobs Portal for People with Disabilities

New online venue gives job seekers with disabilities access to nearly one million jobs and employers seeking to hire them

Chicago, Illinois (PRWEB) November 29, 2011 — Think Beyond the Label launched an online jobs portal that connects job seekers with disabilities to employers, including those that are actively seeking to hire them. Think Beyond the Label’s new job-search engine gives candidates with disabilities free access to nearly one million job listings from more than 90,000 vetted hiring employers in the private and public sectors.

With a 15% unemployment rate among working-age Americans with disabilities, Think Beyond the Label created the jobs portal to promote disability employment opportunities, help grow the pipeline of qualified job candidates with disabilities, and meet businesses’ hiring needs.

“Think Beyond the Label’s fresh approach and message already attracts thousands of people with disabilities to our website, and our jobs portal gives job seekers with disabilities a credible, easy-to-use way to apply for real jobs with companies that want to hire them,” says Barbara Otto, CEO of Health & Disability Advocates, the Chicago-based policy and advocacy organization that operates the Think Beyond the Label partnership.

The Think Beyond the Label jobs portal, which is available at www.thinkbeyondthelabel.com, has a custom interface for displaying available jobs for people with disabilities. The portal first lists results by those companies that are actively seeking to hire from this group, including the federal sector and companies that do business with the federal government. It lets candidates directly interact with employers, and employers are notified when a job seeker applies for a job from the Think Beyond the Label website.

To power this new online platform, Think Beyond the Label partnered with DirectEmployers Association, a consortium of leading global employers. DirectEmployers’ JobCentral database taps into the National Labor Exchange’s job-search engine to distribute listings from small and large employers across the U.S., many who looking for innovative ways for finding and hiring people with disabilities.

“DirectEmployers Association helps employers find and hire candidates in targeted communities that might be difficult to reach via traditional recruiting efforts, says Bill Warren, Executive Director of DirectEmployers Association. “We share a common mission with Think Beyond the Label in that we’re giving companies a new avenue to pursue qualified job seekers with disabilities and meet their workplace diversity needs.”

Think Beyond the Label also helps employers find state and local agencies that specialize in jobs placement and careers for people with disabilities. Such agencies work with employers to screen, recruit and train potential candidates as part of the federal government’s initiatives to improve the employment landscape for people with disabilities, including veterans.

“Our jobs portal and other initiatives all are designed to help more businesses recruit from this under-employed talent pool and take advantage of the tangible benefits of hiring a person with a disability, such as federal tax credits, enhancing workplace diversity and reaching new customers,” says Otto.

About Think Beyond the Label
Think Beyond the Label is a private-public partnership that helps businesses and the public workforce system more effectively recruit, hire and retain job seekers with disabilities across 50 states. Our partnership spans state health and human service and employment agencies; businesses; and Health & Disability Advocates, a national nonprofit organization that manages the Think Beyond the Label partnership. For more information please go to www.thinkbeyondthelabel.com.

About DirectEmployers Association
DirectEmployers Association, Inc. is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit, 600 plus member employer association. As provided in its corporate bylaws, a board of directors consisting of member company representatives manages the business and affairs of the Association. Its mission is to provide employers an employment network that is cost-effective, improves labor market efficiency and reaches an ethnically diverse national workforce. For more news and information, please visit www.DirectEmployers.org.

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