Job Market in Flux

Last year, loan serving nearly two million individuals around the globe, including helping to train more than nearly more than nearly twenty five thousand individuals for careers and industries such as banking, I T and healthcare. So a really appropriate guest and topic on this Giving Tuesday. We've got Steve Preston with us. He's CEO of Goodwill Industries International. He's also got a great background. You worked in the government as administrator of the s b A. UH. He was Secretary of Housing

and Urban Development. UH. Stephen, good to have you with us this afternoon. How are you. I'm great, It's great to be with you, guys. UM. Before we get to what exactly you're doing a good Will I just want to get an idea of what you're seeing with the labor market, what you're seeing across the on me, because that is directly impacts what you do. It good well,

so what's your read? Yeah, for sure it does. So we our network employees people and as you mentioned, we support uh two million people on their quest to a better job each year. So we we touched the labor market in a number of different ways. Um, we're seeing with a lot of a lot of you all see it is hot. It's a little bit less hot than it was a few months ago, but it's still on it from a historical perspective. Um, you know, really strong

labor market. The other thing we're seeing though, is the narrative here is less about, um, the problem getting a job. The narrative is more around people being able to find the right kind of job and employers finding the right kind of employee. Increasingly, what employers have told us over the last you know, five or six months is they've got these great jobs available, but they need people with the right kind of training to be able to be

successful in them. And they're often job that are well paying off for good advancement and in in good benefits. We have people on the other side who are sort of churning in low wage jobs who told us that they want those better jobs, but they're not able to compete for them because they lack the skills or other support they need to be successful in them, and so

we try to provide that bridge. But there's a huge opportunity out there right now in our market for people to move from lower wage jobs into better jobs if they can get support during that pathway, you know, Steve, I've got to say, I feel like over the years we've talked often about a skills gap. I feel like Alan Greenspan used to talk about it a lot when he was a FED chair and so not a new idea,

but I appreciate what you're saying. So, how do we really significantly make sure that, you know, the skills that are needed are being provided, whether it's through academic institutions or other types of training, you know, facilities. How do we fix this problem that's been around for a while. Yeah, it's been around and it's expanded, it's getting worse. So

I'm glad you brought that up. I think foundationally, we may need to make sure that young people are entering the labor for with foundational skills, whether they be digital skills, core, mathematics core, you know, uh, reading and writing skills. A lot of those are missing at the outset, and that's that's sort of the that's sort of the entry point. But is that basic education like through high school you're

talking about, it's basic education in high school. And we need to make sure their educational institutions are preparing people for the workforce. And many of us believe providing more vocational opportunities for people who don't necessarily want to go to college but are are perfect candidates for great jobs

in the trades or in other areas. When people get older, if they if they're unable to be successful in the labor market, or if they have other challenges in life, it is really hard for people to get back on track. And as a result, we need ways for those people to get the support they need that they cannot only break through barriers that they have in life in general,

but they can get those course skills. We see people, we see single moms with kids and homeless shelters going to duck jobs at Google and Accenture in six months. Because if they're getting you're getting support they need to kind of work through that journey, maybe housing support or other support, and they're getting breakthrough digital skills or other skills And the interesting thing about that is that first

job isn't necessarily the ending point. It's like a destination where people say, oh my gosh, like I can do this, I've got these skills, and it becomes it changes the trajectory for people in their lives. So there are pathways. We see it every day in the work what we do. But we need people to get more access to those supports, and not only the skills themselves, but help through that initial part in the journey so that they can get

to the other ended move into employment. Hey Mike, we only got a minute left, but you worked in government for many years. You were former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, you were administrator of the s b A. Given what you know now you're from your work at Goodwill. If you could wave a magic wand and get lawmakers to do something to help alleviate the issues that you see each and every day, what would it be. Well, first of all, my my magic wand would say, let's

let's agree there's a problem together. We want to work together rather than going into our separate camp. So that's a broader, broader narrative. I think we need to focus on the core educational lack in this entire system, both at the edge, at the at the secondary educational level and beyond, because our employers needed, are people needed, Our community is needed, and there are pathways both early on and throughout life that we can support that will change

this issue. And UM and I think there's a lot of data out there. There are a lot of service providers like us out there, and if we can come together, we can make a huge dent in this issue. Well, we run out of time, Steve, but I hope UM you will come back because we would love to continue the conversation and I feel like there's a lot of other areas that we could go with you. Steve Preston,

Chief executive officer, Goodwill Industries International. He's former Secretary Area of the U S Department of Housing and Urban Development and Administrative of the U S Small Business Administration. He served during the George W. Bush administration. So great to catch up with him via zoom in Washington, d C. A lot of relevant You know, when you look at a labor market and how tight it is, this is ways of creating workers that have the skills that are needed. This is Bloomberg Radio