As Unemployment Rises, Goodwill Helps People Find Jobs
The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the nation’s unemployment rate for March rose to 8.5 percent.
At Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette (GICW), we remain committed to our mission of helping people gain employment. Goodwill knows that it takes a comprehensive approach to help people find and keep good jobs.
In 2008, GICW served more than 23,600 people with barriers to employment through GICW vocational programs, including Job Connection, Employee Career Enhancement and English-as-a-Second Language. Of those individuals, we placed 8,745 people with barriers to employment into community employment positions.
When people donate and shop at Goodwill, they make an economic investment in their communities. Each time a donation is sold more than 90 cents on the dollar fund our local job programs to help individuals become productive, taxpaying citizens.
Goodwill’s Free Job Connection program provides people with disabilities and other barriers to employment, anyone unable to find work, a customized plan based on his or her skills and interest. The referral program is designed to assist locating community employment within 30 days. Goodwill helps people find jobs in a variety of fields including health care, banking, computer programming, and janitorial services.
Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette is ready to support the unemployed and continue its 81-year tradition of helping people who are having a hard time finding employment.
For more information please contact Dale Emanuel, Public Relations Representative at (503) 238-6138.