Staffler wants to streamline job openings in NMI

Leila Staffler

After her recent confirmation hearing at the Senate as CNMI Labor secretary, Leila Staffler says one of her top priorities with the CNMI Department of Labor is to streamline all job vacancy announcements in order to make finding jobs easier for CNMI residents.

Following the confirmation hearing, Staffler stated that one of her first acts in office is to work on streamlining all job vacancy announcements through the DOL website for CNMI residents to conveniently look for job openings.

“The No. 1 thing I really want to move Labor into is updating our websites and access points for the people of the community, especially right now with so many people getting laid off from work, not just in the government but also the private sector. People look to Labor for answers and where they can look for their next opportunity. One of the challenges I see is that, although Labor does have JVA placement for jobs that are usually being advertised for CW renewals, we are not a repository for all JVAs in the CNMI. So I want to do better in connecting people to other place where job vacancy announcements are posted. Right now, there are multiple sites within our government, as an example, that have lots of JVAs open. There are also private sector areas where there are JVAs posted, so getting it all centralized so there are links from our Department of Labor website would be a good place to start,” she said.

Another issue Staffler aims to tackle is the issue of the impending phase-out of all CNMI-Only transitional workers come 2029.

“Another area of high concern for our community is the CW-1 end date. I’m making sure I’m in communication with our Department of Labor counterparts in the federal side so that they can get a good picture and understanding. Part of that is collecting the right type of data. At this point, we don’t have all the kinds of data that we need to be able to make our case with the U.S. Department of Labor so that they can get the picture,” she said.

“That’s something I’ve been working on. I’ve already begun collaborating with [Department of] Commerce, I will start talking with [Division of] Tax and Revenue. We really do need to align our systems more so we can share information that will help all of us in applying for grants or for making our cases with federal counterparts,” Staffler added.

Ultimately, Staffler said, she’ll do her best for the betterment of the CNMI Department of Labor.

“I pledge to do the best that I can do to help all of our islands, to ensure that they are all able to receive the opportunities that are out there. I will leverage my resources and use technology as much as possible to make sure that our scope and our width is as broad as possible to help as many people in the CNMI as possible. Increasing the use of technology across the department for monitoring practices and ensuring that we’re cross-referencing and communicating is something else that I’m working on now. There is currently no social media platform for the Department of Labor; that’s something I’m working toward so people have better access to announcements, opportunities, and different things that come up,” she said.