00:00It's interesting because I think of Goodwill, as many people do, is a thrift store where you can go and
00:04find cool items at lower prices.
00:07But what your real sort of mission statement is, is to train people to get back into the labor market.
00:17And how are you doing that?
00:20Well, so, yeah, thank you for mentioning that. That's very important.
00:23Our core mission is to help people. Many people who have challenges in life, 85 percent of the people we
00:28serve have a high school degree or less.
00:30So we are looking to help people who may not be in great jobs today get training, get other support
00:37they need to move into the great jobs that are out there.
00:40And we're in a situation right now where there are millions of unfilled jobs, many of which are unfilled because
00:47employers can't find people with the skills they need.
00:50And millions of people either sitting on the sidelines or in low wage jobs who would like those good jobs,
00:57but don't know how to get the training to to move along that pathway.
01:00So it's a really important question. And what we do is we work with people both to understand what's available
01:08in that local job market and help and work with them to get not only the skills they need,
01:13but sort of the life stability, other kinds of support needs they have to move to a point where they're
01:19job ready, where they have the skills they need and they can get placed in those jobs,
01:23which is great for everybody. Right. Because we have employers with competitive labor needs.
01:29And in many cases, they can't fulfill their own projections if they can't fill those seats.
01:33And we have people who need better jobs for their own livelihood, for their families.
01:38So if we can bring those two things together, which is especially important in a transitioning economy like right now,
01:45everybody wins.
01:47And you've also recently put out a survey, a report on this very topic and where job anxiety and jobs
01:54stand at the moment.
01:54Secretary Preston, I think one of the more interesting parts of it and the thing that we're all anxious and
02:00grappling with at this moment is how AI is going to impact all of this.
02:04In the report, it said that employers say they want AI skills, but workers say their companies, one, aren't training
02:10them.
02:10And only 22 percent of the people you surveyed said that they're using AI for career development.
02:16How do we solve that gap?
02:19Yeah. Yeah, it is sort of a paradox, right?
02:23Right. The employer demand is there for the skills, but people are saying they're not getting those skills from their
02:28employers.
02:29So they need to find some other place to get it.
02:32So right now, for example, we've got a partnership with Google where we are reaching out to people across the
02:38country to sign up for free AI classes.
02:44So if you go into goodwill.org, you can click into it and you can get a free class either
02:49on AI essentials or AI prompting skills to elevate your capability.
02:52We're building those into local digital training classes.
02:57We're pushing it through our own workforce.
02:59But we are kind of operating in that slice that we touch as goodwill.
03:04The burden really needs to be on employers to give those opportunities to their employees and not only learn the
03:13core skills, but understand or develop opportunities for them to be able to apply those skills specifically in the workplace
03:21to do their jobs better.
03:22So I think many employers are taking this very seriously, but that needs to happen much more broadly.
03:29I want to ask about the stores, because we just spoke with the CEO of Burlington, who said, you know,
03:35higher prices are pushing higher income shoppers into into their stores.
03:40And I wonder if they're coming through your doors as well.
03:43Are you seeing a pickup in thrifting, you know, not only because it's trendy and popular right now, but also
03:49because, you know, people just need more value.
03:52They can't afford to live otherwise.
03:55Yeah, we've gone through this.
03:57Yes, people are absolutely looking for value and they're finding it at goodwill.
04:01If you look at our growth from pre-COVID to today, our revenue is up almost 50 percent.
04:07And if you look at just the last four years, it's up 30 percent.
04:10That goes right through that inflationary period we saw coming out of COVID.
04:14Obviously, it's we still have a degree of inflation now, but people in that inflation was in many essential categories
04:22like transportation and food and housing.
04:25So these are people who really felt the hit in their paychecks.
04:29And so we absolutely see people coming through the doors of goodwill, looking for value.
04:37And it's so important to those people when they're trying to make ends meet, when they're, you know, living paycheck
04:43to paycheck.
04:44So we are we're very grateful for our role in society as a place where people can come to find
04:51that value.
04:52And you also mentioned there, you know, there are bigger sector trends that are we benefit from this whole look
04:57to treasure hunting.
04:58People come to Goodwill to find for the experience, to find value.
05:02Everything I'm wearing today is from Goodwill, including my Ferragamo tie and Hugo Boss jacket.
05:08And and then those stores also fund the workforce mission you mentioned.
05:12Last year, we put nearly a quarter of a billion dollars into workforce programs from those stores.
05:18Every penny we make in those stores stays in local communities as a nonprofit.
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