The German national employment agency job listing database could use some TLC

With around 100 000 full time employees and a budget of just shy of 34 billion Euros in 2015, the German national employment agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) is a big agency. It is responsible for matching jobseekers and employers and performs related tasks, including handling unemployment claims as well as training for the long term unemployed.

And it runs a job exchange website, Germany's largest, proudly listing the number of registered job seekers every time you visit. Today, there are some 2.9 million registered jobseekers and over 1 million open jobs, for a total nation wide active workforce of some 42 million.

There is one positive thing to be said about the site. You can change the user interface language from German to English, French, Spanish, Italian, Turkish and Russian.

But that's it.

There should be a disclaimer on the website warning No user interface designer has been harmed or involved in the making of this site.

Changing the language is already a 2 step affair. You select the desired language with a dropdown, then you have to click the button Ändern right next to the dropdown.

So, unless you understand the label "Sprache", figure out the dropdown can help and then hit Ändern hoping to get it right, it is not too nice.

The blogster doesn't want to sound too cynical, but a statement like Job vacancy just a few clicks away is traditionally not a good sign for usability. The statement indicates that the developer of the site felt it necessary to encourage the user in the face of coming complexity.

Right on. So, we see (/ added for clarity)

Job vacancy just a few clicks away

Looking for    Jobs / Change to apprenticeships / Change to jobs for artists
Job location   Germany / Change

While we can give "Jobs" and "Change to apprenticeships" the benefit of the doubt, "Change to jobs for artists" is nonsensical by any standard.

Job Location Germany / Change is equally misleading because clicking on Change will not give you jobs in another country. It brings up a list of the German states.

Let's say you stay on the national level and are looking for a job in the metal working/auto industry. This currently has over 150 000 open jobs listed.

So, yes, Job vacancy just a few clicks away....

The alternative form based search comes in basic and advanced. Both look like forms that are generated from database views via SQL or PS/SQL scripting (as opposed to a form designed as a user interface and then populated via database queries). 

Instead of splitting hairs, let's split search results
The first screenshot shows 200 search results (left) and a setting of "10" per page. We moved to page 10 of 20.

Let's say you change your mind and want 20 results per page. Click on "20", and you get this screenshot.

Note what happens? You are thrown back to the being of the results, page 1 of 10.
Calling this sloppy is the most charitable term we could find.

But hey, you want a job, so you want to set up a profile and get to work. To find how, you click "Help". You get this:

The first thing to notice is there is no "Search" function for the Help. That's pretty pathetic.

But, well, you read on and eventually end up at the blue highlighted part that tells you that you will get a PIN in the post after you have labored through entering all your information.

By post, snail mail. We tried, and it took 2 weeks.

To be fair, you can apply to individual job listings without setting up a profile but if you receive no unemployment benefits, potential employers have no way of seeing your profile.

No, the blogster won't be lenient on this because the postal feature can cost jobseekers money, and the employment agency in question is that of the fourth largest economy on the planet.

No, don't say this is "big data" and therefore difficult. It is not.