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00:00How healthy right now is the rebound. Well you know we have seen a significant number of jobs come back. About half the jobs that were lost at the peak are now back. But as we look forward we've also got some concerns. All right. Each month the pace of job growth has diminished. We're beginning to hear from corporations from corporate leaders through surveys and other methods that they're actually thinking about doing more belt tightening in the fourth quarter whether it's in the form of layoffs or restructurings or even kind of freezes. And in the longer term I think one of the important trends for us all to take a look at is the fact that the pace of adoption of technology has dramatically accelerated. And McKinsey came out with a report earlier this month that basically indicated that companies had accelerated their technology adoption by three to four years just in a short period of time which changes not only the nature of the jobs but potentially the number of jobs that we will be seeing following a rebound. Lest we forget as we all get excited about people heading to the polls people voting the data in times of Cove it is particularly ugly today when nearly 10 million in terms of the US report Morgan Stanley saying that this is was an all bad model. We're going to have potentially see further lockdowns. What do you think that means for you for goodwill for people on the ground. Yes. So one of the unfortunate aspects of this pandemic and its impact on the labor market is it is it is hit service workers particularly hard. And these are people who typically have lower income. So they have fewer resources lower levels of education. So they're less resilient in finding new jobs. And they also represent a higher percentage of racial and ethnic minorities. And so if we think about a potential re shutdown or tightening again these people that are just beginning to go to work in some numbers although they're still disproportionately hit are once again going to be put in a very difficult situation. So this this is very concerning as a goodwill. We're the largest provider of workforce development services in the country. A million and a half people come through our doors every year for support and about 24 million people come to us online. And so we're very concerned about about people in these groups specifically because of the need that they will have for employment. Talk to us more about that. Employers come to you and they often say we don't have. The labor force with the right skills. What skills are they now looking for in this environment. How do you help provide and trained those to make sure that you're providing a skilled workforce that employers need. Yes. So I think there are a couple of ways to think about it. First of all I would say fundamental gateway skills. So increasingly anybody who's coming into even the basic level jobs need some level of digital proficiency. And we know for example we have a partnership with Google where we've trained over a million people given over a million people exposure to digital skills many of them sort of higher level skills. And of the people that just get more than the basics. Over half of them are saying that very quickly. They're getting raises they're getting promotions or they're moving into higher paying jobs and also sort of other basic workforce skills. So these entry level gateway skills are essential justice for the price of entry but then also refining many more employers saying I'm not looking for a degree I'm looking for a specific skill set for a specific job. So it may be a health care worker. It may be somebody in a particular technology kind of job data skills or maybe credentials in certain trades. And so many employers are saying I'm looking for that square peg in a square hole. And what we do is we partner with them and we provide people with both the gateway skills as well as in many cases these more targeted skills for specific professions. What are you looking for here over the next four years Steve. No matter who the president is on January 20th what is sort of the main sort of policy issue that you would like to see accomplished. Well there are a few things. First of all from a government government perspective I think we're looking for the government to look at relevant programmatic support that helps nonprofit organizations deliver exactly the kind of job skills and job support that I just mentioned. We need to be able to take people who don't have those skills who come to us with you know other challenges in life perhaps in work with them to allow them to invest in themselves and then compete effectively for those jobs. We're also beyond Washington really looking for employers to step up to the plate and say we are committed to supporting people who need to find jobs. We're committed to looking harder to find the right talent to supporting people who provide workforce development skills. And when people come to us and get jobs. We're committed to continuing to upscale them so they can continue to compete in a changing labor environment. You of course also work with the Housing and Urban Development in it. Steven I want to get your perspective on that. There is much worry about the eviction moratorium is coming to an end the potential housing crisis. Thus far the data is just showing that housing is the one area of growth in the economy here in the U.S.. What do you what do you perspective. Well my perspective on that is housing can switch very quickly. And when people start losing their jobs they have an often an inability to pay for mortgages an inability to pay for rent in housing. If you are in a challenging part of you if you're in a challenging situation you know like you've recently become unemployed having a place to live is the most basic form of stability that you need to be able to begin to get your life back. So as we start seeing evictions or other kinds of challenges like that where people start losing their homes where they have to move their families you know God forbid they become homeless you know a lot of other very negative ripple effects occur. And so it's very important to to work with people to maintain that housing security through a crisis like this.

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Goodwill CEO Concerned About Recent Economic Trends

Goodwill Industries International Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Preston discusses the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and stresses the importance of housing security amid the crisis. He speaks on "Bloomberg Markets: The Close." (Source: Bloomberg)

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