It’s no secret that the unemployment rate in the United States has reached pretty disturbing heights due to the recent economic recession. Millions of people, even those who had all the appropriate qualifications, lost their jobs simply because the companies could no longer afford to have them on board. Today, the country is slowly trying to get back on its feet, but doing so isn’t so easy.

Some people are under the impression that there are simply no more jobs available. However, the truth is that there are still a lot of posts out there that are waiting to be filled but people just don’t know where to look. There are agencies out there which can help people find jobs; the only problem is that they’re not exactly widely known.

Facebook is going to lend a helping hand by launching the “Social Jobs Partnership” page: a collaboration between Facebook, the Department of Labor, The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), DirectEmployers Association (DE), and the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA). Social Jobs Partnership will give these agencies the visibility that they need in order to reach job seekers and perhaps even employers.

Facebook will be researching about the ways in which recruiters and jobseekers use social media. Through this information, Facebook will be developing a free system wherein job listings will be posted on the social networking site and job seekers can simply apply whenever they see one that they feel they are qualified for.

Currently, it’s still unclear how Facebook will facilitate this system, but if it’s successful, our Facebook profiles might just become an extension of our resumes. It’s already a well-known “secret” that companies investigation Facebook profiles of potential employees. In fact, there are some employers who prefer using Facebook instead of professional social networks such as Linkedin or Monster. The general idea behind this is that on Facebook, what people see is not a glossed up version of the person – you see a more genuine representation of the individual.

Of course, there are privacy advocates who are opposed to the idea of having Facebook interlinked with the process of job recruitment. People signed up on Facebook without any idea of what it might become, and to have it turn into some sort of profiling service for companies seems like something of a betrayal.

However, there are also those who commend Facebook for entering into such a partnership, certain that it can help people who have more problems to worry about than their online privacy.