SALISBURY — The Rowan Economic Development Commission has launched a new tool that will help connect employers with job seekers.

Through its Forward Rowan campaign and made possible by donations from Johnson Concrete Products and the Salisbury-Rowan Community Foundation, the Rowan EDC developed a “one-stop” job portal on its website that gives prospective employees a place to sort through thousands of open positions.

“I’ve been working on it for probably six months. So to see it all finally come together and be published out there is very rewarding,” Rowan EDC President Rod Crider said. “It’s even more rewarding to hear about people that are connecting with employers and getting a good job as a result.” 

The Forward Rowan campaign marked the Rowan EDC’s transition to a private-public partnership that will better help the organization achieve its goals for generating economic activity in Rowan County. Formerly, the Rowan EDC’s only funding source was from local governments.

More than $1 million was raised during the fundraising stage, some of which went to the development of the online job portal. When Johnson Concrete Products and the Salisbury-Rowan Community Foundation donated to the campaign, the companies wanted their donations earmarked specifically for the creation of the portal.

“Johnson Concrete was very interested because they want to promote the trades and jobs that are available in the trades,” Crider said. “Helping to get word out about available jobs in the trades and encouraging people to pursue careers in the trades is important to them.” 

Powered by JobsEQ software, the Rowan EDC’s job portal constantly scans publicly posted job listings on sites such as LinkedIn and Indeed and aggregates them in one place. Job seekers can search open positions by job title, employer name, job category and location. Or, they can simply browse all available jobs.

“These opportunities are here now and the new portal is a creative way to provide information for those who want a new job, a better job, or even take the first step to creating a new career,” said Greg Edds, chairman of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners. “Hats off to the work (Rowan EDC) is doing to make things better for everyone in Rowan County.”

There are currently about 2,000 jobs posted in the portal. Open positions ranging from a crew member at McDonald’s to a behavioral health care specialist at Novant Health are currently listed.

“Obviously there are a lot of opportunities out there for people of all kinds of interest and all kinds of skill levels,” Crider said. “People don’t have to go far from where they live to find a good-paying job that offers a rewarding career.”

When the EDC was working to create the portal, Crider said they put a lot of thought into how wide of a net they wanted to cast.

“We obviously wanted the focus to be open Rowan County jobs and employers, but we also know there are people that live in Rowan County that work in neighboring counties and that there are good job opportunities in neighboring counties as well,” Crider said. “We didn’t want to penalize anybody based on geography.”

Jobs in Davidson, Cabarrus, Iredell, Stanly and Davie are listed on the portal.

Since the job portal went live a little over a week ago, Crider said the EDC has already seen a positive response.

The Rowan EDC will continue to tweak the portal as time goes on, Crider said, in order to make the interface and experience as user friendly as possible. The Rowan EDC has already promoted the job portal on its social media platforms, but Crider said the organization will continue to publicize the portal and share it with nearby employers who might be hiring.

“The broader we can get it out there,” Crider said, “the better chance we have of connecting people with employers.”

The portal can be accessed at rowanedc.com/work-in-rowan.